Arctic Rim
by GenghisQuan
Summary: It was supposed to be another routine kaiju breach response at the Vladivostok Shatterdome, but Rangers Elsa and Anna Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, pilots of the Mark-III Jaeger Frozen Heart, may be in over their heads as they discover there is more to their deployment than meets the eye, and no routine survives contact with the enemy.
1. Die Walküren

**Chapter 1**

**Die Walküren**

* * *

**_Vladivostok, 2019_**

**_Kaiju War, Year 6_**

* * *

_Knock knock-knock knock knock._

Elsa Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg smiled in her personal quarters as the familiar tapping reached her ears. She looked ahead into the mirror, put the finishing touches on the military braid that held her flowing blonde hair in place, slipped a leather bomber jacket over her fatigues, and then strode over and opened the door. In front of Elsa stood a young woman, three years her junior, wide-eyed and delicate of face save for the scar that ran up the left side of her forehead. She stood there, youthful excitement shining like fire in her eyes, accentuating her bright auburn hair, normally done up in twin braided pigtails, now tied in a neat bun behind her head.

She was Elsa's sister, which was why the first thing Elsa did was hug her.

"One minute and seventeen seconds after the initial alert. That's your best time yet, Anna," Elsa said, smirking as the sisters let go of each other. She looked to the side, then reached out to tighten up Anna's bun. "Could still be better, but good try, though. Come on, we have a kaiju to stop. Category III, biggest one to come through the Breach yet. Code name: Bilgesnipe."

"You know, Elsa, one of these day you're going to tell me your secret," Anna replied, easily falling in step with her older sister as Elsa led them to the Drivesuit Room. "And don't give me that 'it's just being organized' nonsense. I don't see how anything other than some kind of black magic that lets you hack _life_ would leave you with enough time to apply _eyeshadow_ of all things before a drop."

"What was I supposed to do? You kept me waiting," Elsa replied innocently, laughing as Anna lightly punched her shoulder in mock indignation. The sisters had always been close, and two years of the Drift only solidified that bond. Two years ago, neither of them would have imagined that they would be here, as part of an elite few holding the line against an eldritch invasion from beneath the waves. Indeed, prior to K-Day, both of them thought their futures would emulate that of most of their peers - some prestigious boarding school which would result in an MRS degree, followed by a life of domestic celebrity. It still hadn't changed after K-Day, wherein both assumed their role would be to act as the eternal Churchill, inspiring their people to fight on in the face of destruction. It was only after that breakthrough in Anchorage, wherein the boffins had ironed out the final wrinkle holding back their ultimate weapon against the kaiju menace - the neural overload that had traumatized and at times killed single pilots, which had suddenly became manageable when split between two.

To fight monsters, humanity had created monsters of their own, and now that they could collar and leash it at will, the lives of two young girls changed forever. In a different time, perhaps they would be riding in motorcades, fetchingly gowned and waving at adoring crowds. Instead, they were striding purposefully down the halls of the Vladivostok Shatterdome, their feet in lockstep unison, their shoulders adopting the easy swagger of those who walked the path of gods, while klaxons blared and warning monitors glowed with updates all around them.

"Hey Elsa," Anna said, a mischievous grin creeping upon her face as she adopted a singsong cant to her voice. "_Do you wanna bust a kaiju?"_

"_Break its back over your knee,"_ Elsa replied, grinning back. It had become a ritual between the two of them, ever since second trimester at Jaeger Academy, wherein they had just received their Pons qualification and started drop simulations. "Ghost-Drifting," it was called, a side effect of the mental bond that was necessary for Jaeger pilots to handle the neural load from their war machines. There were stories among the more senior rangers, of partners habitually finishing each other's sentences, or taking on each other's verbal tics, or handing each other things before they asked…it surprised no one that so many teams were comprised of married couples. _The better you Drift, the better you fight_, so the mantra went, and the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps, for its part, encouraged its Rangers to participate in any and all activities that could foster that mental bond. In Elsa and Anna's case, both of them having received extensive musical training since primary school, there was only one logical outcome of that initiative.

"_Or grab it by the neck-"_

"_And blast it all to heck-"_

"_Before you end it with a freeze?"_

By custom, Anna always started it, though the way the meter was set up, both of them would get a chance at matching each other's rhymes. It was silly, and a little childish perhaps, but it helped them both let off some stress before stepping inside a Jaeger. Taking negative emotions – fear, anxiety, embarrassment – into the Drift was a recipe for disaster, and if a few strange looks from Shatterdome staff was the price for a little Zen in the cockpit, so be it.

"_It's gonna be another one,"_ Elsa replied, shifting meters and throwing the rhyme back to Anna, "_tossed overboard…"_

"_Sinking beneath the fjord!"_

"Huh, fjord," Elsa noted, turning her head to look at her sister. "That's actually pretty good." Soon she came to a halt as they had arrived at the Drivesuit Room. Elsa looked over at her sister again and winked. "_Let's go bust another kaiju…"_

* * *

"_It's gonna be another notch on the belt-"_

"_Once with this thing we have dealt…"_

"Ladies, you have great singing voices and all, but could you just please hold off for a minute - or at least, on moving around so much - until we get the spinal clamps on you?"

Anna complied with the Drivesuit technician, a short and somewhat pudgy man with a perpetual smile on his easygoing countenance and a bushy beardstache that reminded her of that American TV series about the hillbillies with the duck hunting pro shop, though she couldn't keep the giddy grin off her face, even as - especially as she felt the familiar tingle up her spine, like a clump of snow being stuffed down your jacket, as the last piece of machinery slid into place, locking into the armor plate covering her back and interfacing with the skintight circuitry suit she wore underneath. Suiting up always got her excited. The little girl inside her would always look at every single reflective surface on the way to check out how the circuitry suit accentuated all of her curves, and the big girl inside her simply couldn't wait to _walk _again. Somewhere inside of Anna was a medium girl too, less impulsive, less spontaneous, but somehow Anna had always managed to lose track of her before stepping inside their Jaeger.

Thankfully, she always had Elsa to keep her grounded.

Anna glanced at her older sister, who looked positively regal, her eyes closed in serene contemplation as the techs affixed the last pieces of form-fitting polycarbonate plate to her body. She didn't know how Elsa maintained such composure; she herself was absolutely elated. Or possibly gassy. _Hopefully the former,_ Anna thought, as the atmospheric seals on her helmet snapped into place with a sharp _hiss_ and Relay Gel began cycling through her suit. Looking around, Anna caught a glimpse of her reflection on a computer screen and grinned. The Drivesuit always made her feel like some sort of futuristic techno-Viking - or rather, a techno-shieldmaiden - standing with sword and shield in hand to ward off Ragnarok.

"Suit-up sequence complete," Pabbie announced through his radio headset. "Initiate Jaeger startup and pilot integration." He then smiled and bowed. "Lead on, ladies. You may continue singing, if you like."

A set of blast doors opened, and Anna followed her sister through the walkway and into the access hatch of their Jaeger's Conn-Pod, taking her place at the left half as Elsa did likewise to the right. All around them, displays, indicators, and ambient lighting flashed on, bathing both girls in a sea of glacial blue as they stepped into the Motion Rig, which always looked to Anna like the world's most badass elliptical. The pedals affixed themselves to her boots, control grips popped into her gauntlets, and below her, gantry doors opened to reveal layers of intricate gears, pistons, and circuitry beneath. Various frames, locks, assemblies, and cradles descended upon Anna and Elsa, holding them tight and securing them to the Jaeger. It was a little uncomfortable, but Anna was glad for the protection. Anna wasn't always the best math student at Jaeger Academy, having always been more of an instinctual learner, but she did remember vividly one night of browsing "PSA Nightmare Fuel" on TvTropes during her off time, and a kaiju's claw swipe was infinitely more deadly than merely being in an auto collision without a seatbelt.

"Pilot integration complete," Pabbie announced as he ran a final check that everything was locked in and tight. He looked first at Elsa, then at Anna, and smiled at the both of them. "Be safe out there," he added, before leaving the Conn-Pod with his team.

"Thanks, Pabbie," Anna and Elsa said in unison. Good, dependable Pabbie Stein. Some techs believed in maintaining professional distance between themselves and the Rangers who piloted the machines they inevitably brought back in various states of disrepair. Pabbie was not one of them, treating both the pilots who inhabited his beloved Frozen Heart as if they were his own family.

It was a welcome and much-missed feeling.

The doors slid shut behind Anna, and she ran her own pre-deployment check and pre-Drift link analysis. Everything looked good to go. She glanced back at Elsa, who returned the look with a thumbs-up.

"Yoo-hoo, snow queens," came another voice over the comm. "How are we doing today?"

"Oaken," Anna radioed back. "How was the anniversary dinner?"

"Yeah, did Franz like it?" Elsa added, sending the all-clear signal through her control console.

"Ooh yes, it was most magical," replied Ensign Oaken Magnusson, LOCCENT mission controller. "_Mange takk_, ladies. I owe you both a big one."

"Engage drop, Ensign Magnusson," interjected Marshal Anastasia Andreievna Kerensky, commanding officer of the Vladivostok Shatterdome, with a voice which, in Elsa's words, somehow managed to combine the softness of fresh snow with the harshness of a howling blizzard, and in Anna's words, was like if you crossed Demi Moore with the Wicked Witch of the West. "Rangers, acknowledge."

"Marshal Kerensky on deck," Oaken radioed in, his tone shifting from its formerly whimsical nature to one more serious. "Engaging pre-drop protocols, ma'am."

_All business, Marshal Kerensky,_ Anna thought. But also a tough woman who spent years fighting kaiju, back when humanity could provide her no protection greater than a flimsy Su-35. Upon the door to the Marshal's office hung a picture frame, scrimshawed out of sealbone from her native Lake Baikal and inlaid with gold trim, which held the PPDC staff portrait of whoever could beat the previous record for longest time lasted before tapping out to her in the Kwoon Combat Room. Scuttlebutt was that the only reason she was the only Marshal to have never seen the inside of a Jaeger was a lack of Drift-compatible partners. Anna knew of no one they trusted more to lead them, although based on past experience, she would have to admit that Marshal Pentecost out of Anchorage would be a worthy contender.

"Release for drop," she heard Elsa call back as soon as both women hit the all-clear on their respective consoles. A few seconds later, pistons hissed, gears turned, and technicians departed the loading areas as the Conn-Pod slid down its rails. There was the initial lurch, and briefly Anna had a flashback to the chocolates she had stuffed in her face upon receiving the initial breach alert. Then the Conn-Pod slowed as it reached the end of its descent, locking on and easing into its housing above Frozen Heart's shoulders.

"Rangers, know this - standing next to me here is Royal Highness Hans Monpezat. As you know, United Nations representative from Denmark, here to oversee Jaeger drop in person."

Anna raised an eyebrow at this. Denmark, Sweden, and her own native Norway had cooperated to build Frozen Heart, along with help from Finland and Iceland. But generally politicians had stayed away from the closer operations, content that with the construction of a Jaeger, there can be no doubt as to their intentions of concern for the people. She was fairly sure they had met at some point during their youth, but could not for the life of her remember when, or what he even looked like, for that matter. In either case, that question was not really important compared to why he was even here.

"What do you think that means?" she heard Elsa ask. Her older sister had a finger on the "mute" button. Anna shrugged.

"Same as it always does, I suppose," Anna replied. "We go in, do our jobs, and get out?" She was about to say something else, but another voice cut in.

"My ladies, It is an honor to be witnessing all of this." The stranger was soft. Refined. Presumably, it was Hans. "On behalf of the people of Denmark and across the world, I thank you and sincerely wish upon you both the best of luck and a safe return."

"Well, he sounds manly," Anna said.

"Keyword, _sounds_," Elsa replied. "For all you know he could be hideous."

"Uh, sis? Check your mute."

"Wait, what - oh. Ha, ha, Anna. Very funny. Nearly gave me a heart attack there."

"Made you look."

"What are we, in primary school?"

By this time, the Conn-Pod had fully docked and engaged itself to the rest of Frozen Heart's body. System integration displays all flashed green, and with a deep rumble, the Arc-9 nuclear vortex turbine in the Jaeger's chest roared to life, pumping power to torque drivers and gyro-stabilizers and myomer muscle strands. 80 meters and 1600 metric tons of steel stood ready to face the next threat to humanity and pound it into next week. Ordinarily, Anna would have rubbed her palms together in anticipation, but her left hand held the control grip to the kinetic strike module and the incinerator gauntlet which were about go live in less than half a minute. Still, it was agony to wait. Sitting in a Jaeger cockpit made everything seem so small, and Anna yearned to feel that sense of power again.

"Frozen Heart, standing by to roll out," Elsa called out on the public band. "LOCCENT, whenever you're ready, open up the gates."

"Very well, relaying final checks," Oaken replied on the other side. "Final check, complete. Gates are opening. Yoo-hoo, Warrant Officer Bjorgman, prepare your Jumphawk squadron for airlift. In the meantime..."

"Initiate neural handshake," ordered Kerensky. "Good hunting, Rangers."

"Initiating neural handshake in 20," Oaken called out. "19...18...17…"

With a metallic groan, like the belching of some iron monster, the gates to Bay 06 of the Vladivostok Shatterdome slid open, and Frozen Heart, in all its glory, slid out, borne upon a heavy tracked platform as King Leonidas upon his shield. Above it, circling as a flock of ravens, swept the V-50 Jumphawks, towing harnesses hanging from their fuselages, ready to link up with the clasps on the Jaeger's shoulders. Inside the Conn-Pod, both sisters closed their eyes and hummed in unison.

As soon as Oaken counted to "one", Anna opened her eyes, looked over to Elsa, caught her sister's gaze looking back at her, and winked.

"_Let's go bust another kaiju..."_

* * *

_They were kids. Anna was five, and Elsa was eight. It was the first snowfall of the year. _

"_Come on, Elsa. The sky is awake, so I'm awake, so we have to go and play." _

_Sledding down the hills behind their home. Skating over the frozen-over ponds. Building snowmen in the front courtyard._

_Their first time on an airplane. Anna crying because her eardrums popped. Elsa holding her, petting her hair and whispering that it would be okay. Mamma dispensing chocolates from her purse._

_Stuffy conferences and ceremonies, being the good little girls they always had to be, full of poise and grace._

_School had let out. They were older now, with older hobbies._

"_Boomer! Nice shot. Hold up, I'm grabbing some pain pills, and - ugh, Smoker's got me! Thanks Anna. Wait, I think there's a witch coming up ahead. Flashlights off, don't startle her."_

_But the snow still held its childhood charm._

"_Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"_

_Watching the news, Mamma and Pappa covering their eyes as images flowed in from San Francisco._

_Flying again, for with power came responsibility._

_Oblivion Bay, formerly Sacramento, laying wreaths and offering sincere condolences._

_Disneyland, getting photos with all eleven princesses._

_Cabo San Lucas, the emerald sea against pearl sand beaches. Splashing in the water. Mamma and Pappa beneath an umbrella, Pappa with drink in hand, Mamma getting gorgeously tanned._

_A creature, monstrous, huge, out of every nightmare they've ever had._

_Chaos._

"_Don't worry about us! Kay, Gerda, take the girls and run! Get them out of here!"_

"_Mamma! Pappa!"_

"_Come on, girls, just follow me and run! your parents are adults, they know what they're doing! They'll be waiting for you in Oslo! Follow me and don't look back!"_

_Numbness._

_Flags at half mast._

"_Do...do you wanna build a snowman?"_

_They were young adults now, sticking out like sore thumbs among a crowd of high school prodigies with national rankings, military veterans who knew dozens of ways to kill with their pinkies, and world-class Olympians who may as well be physical demigods, but they had made the cut. The sigil of an eagle with wings outstretched (clearly designed by an American, Anna had said), a star above its head (yep, definitely American, Elsa had replied), greeted them. And then, with a single bugle call, ("The Stars and Stripes Forever"? Really, guys? Really?) the gates opened._

_Don't conceal, but also don't feel._

_Just let it go._

We are one with the wind and sky.

* * *

"Neural handshake holding steady, Marshal." Oaken's voice came through the comm loud and clear, right as Elsa and Anna rejoined the present. "Initiating calibration procedures."

"Right hemisphere calibrating," Elsa called out, raising her right arm as she did so. The control grip in her hand now glowed with hard light, running further synchronization subroutines with both her brain and Anna's.

"Left hemisphere calibrating," Anna added, a second later. She raised her left arm, and through the Headspace created by the Drift, Elsa felt her own left arm half-consciously do the same, as if it were suspended in a bathtub.

"One, two, three, together," Elsa called out, and immediately her sister responded. "Clap together, snap together," Anna added, and in unison both women closed their hands. Through the displays flashing into her own helmet, Elsa could see Frozen Heart's asymmetrical arms mimic the movements of its pilots, pounding its right fist into its left palm like a brawler about to wade into a rumble. They had seen a pair of American brothers do it back at Jaeger Academy, to both psych themselves up and as an extra check to confirm a one-hundred percent link between man and machine, and adopted the motion for themselves. You could never do too many checks, Elsa had thought back then. Anna just thought it looked really awesome, especially in inclement weather, when the impact sent shockwaves of rain reverberating off their Jaeger's chassis.

"Good evening, ladies, your chariot awaits," came a new voice into their comm. "Strap yourselves in, we're in for some chop."

"Good to see you too, Kristoff," Anna called back. "Ready for another adventure into the fog?"

"Heh, no venturing _in i dimman_ until I land this thing," Kristoff replied. "But after, maybe...depends on who's buy-"

"Rangers, Marshal here," Kerensky buzzed in as the Jumphawk squadron attached their cables to Frozen Heart's shoulders and lifted off. "General orders same as before, but for benefit of guest I will explain again. As fastest Jaeger in strike group, your orders twofold. Should you encounter kaiju, you will call for support, then engage at will. If you can kill it, then kill it, but otherwise keep it from civilian centers until your _tovarishchi _come for you. And, of course, should one of them find it first, you double time it to support _them_." There was a brief pause before the Marshal continued. "We are not _Americanski_, competing for self-glory and another painted head on plasmacaster barrel. This is Vladisvostok, and we will hold line, unyielding as Marshal Zhukov against Hitlerites at Stalingrad's frozen ruins. Do you copy?"

"Loud and clear," Elsa replied, mentally adding a _mama bear_ to the end of it in Headspace that resulted in a muted gigglesnort from Anna.

"Good. Ensign Magnusson, open hailing frequencies."

"Hailing frequencies open, ma'am," Oaken replied, and upon their displays, Elsa and Anna now saw the relative deployment. Cherno Alpha took point, based on what K-Science had projected would be Bilgesnipe's most probable attack vector. To the south was Nova Hyperion, crewed by two former Olympic-level fencers from Seoul, and to the north was Eden Assassin, another Russian Jaeger whose crew Elsa had never met. She knew Aleksis and Sasha Kaidanovsky, though, and privately wished them good hunting and a safe return. In the Drift, Anna echoed her sentiments.

Elsa then looked to her own ticker. Just like in previous drops, Frozen Heart was to be placed in the center of the formation, as the second line of defense in case the kaiju managed to sneak through the screen of heavy-hitters. She felt a tendril of disappointment from Anna at this, as her sister wanted nothing more than to be at the front lines with fists swinging instead of playing rearguard. The fact that Kristoff was blasting Ride of the Valkyries from the speakers of his Jumphawk as they were being ferried to their position didn't help. _Don't conceal, but don't feel,_ she thought at her sister, who sent a positive response back. Suddenly, however, Elsa felt a stray thought in the back of her head, noting that not only were kaiju incursions growing more frequent, going from semiannual at the beginning of the Kaiju War to quarterly as it went on to not even monthly as of late, but the three most recent engagements had occurred dangerously close to the Miracle Mile.

_Do you think we might see some action then, sis?_

"I hope not," Elsa replied. "The best thing that could happen is if we gang up on the kaiju as it comes in. If it sneaks past Cherno Alpha and the others, we're the least able to slug it out before they can reach us." _We only have each other, _she didn't say. _I can't lose you, too._

_It's okay, Elsa. You don't have to protect me any more. I'll always be right here for you._

Elsa smiled.

_I know you will._

Soon the Jumphawks had lifted Frozen Heart to its destination, and with a sharp snapping sound, unleashed their payload. Like an avenging angel, Frozen Heart crashed into the continental shelf and, with deliberate, purposeful strides that shuddered the ground it walked on, began its patrol of the Pacific Rim. Elsa did not resist the wolfish smile that inevitably crept up her face as she felt the power flow through her body, flurrying from the air into the ground, the power of a colossus, of a titan, of a towering machine-god, cast in steel and fire to send the monsters back to the pits from which they had crawled. The Americans had compared the feeling to spending one's life at God's mercy, then suddenly being able to fight Him and win. From where Elsa stood, though, God was an ally, having granted, in His own mysterious ways, an avenue by which she and her sister could fulfill their _noblesse oblige. _

Yes, she had been despondent when it became clear her parents would never return from Cabo, but the past was in the past, and Elsa was nothing but thankful for the ways things turned out in the end. She had walked as a god walks. She had fought as a god fights. And now it was time to do it again. Through the Drift, she could feel similar emotions stirring from Anna.

_Time to bust another kaiju._


	2. Sigrdrifa

**Chapter 2:**

**Sigrdrifa**

"LOCCENT, this is _Svenja_-Actual, I have visual on the kaiju. Deploying camera pods, over."

Overhead the Jumphawk circled, rotary wings thrumming, electronic eyes zooming in and out, sensor suites pinging left and right. Inside, Warrant Officer Kristoff Bjorgman kept wary vigil over his sensors, alternating between radar, sonar, infrared, ultraviolet, visual, and everything in between. It was not Kristoff's first choice of profession, playing bus-driver and spectator. Like most who entered the Jaeger Academy's halls, he wanted to pilot one of the big ones, to be one of the _Einherjar_, standing with sword and shield against the twilight, but he had been unable to handle the neural load. Still, he contented himself with his current job. After all, behind every warrior was a good squire, and if it helped the war effort, that was enough for him. Sure, it might not have been the most glamorous job - no one was lining up to make action figures of him and his _Svenja_, for one - but it did have its perks.

Namely, a front-row seat to every single bedtime story his parents used to tell him as a kid made real.

From the east it crept, snorting, bellowing as it wound its way through the whale-road. The skalds of old sang of great Jormungandr, the sea-thread, land-rope, poisoner of waves, but they may well be describing the monster that swam through Posyet Bay, over two thousand tons of bestial rage, a mountain of flesh and sinew and muscle, a juggernaut of aggression that left Aegir's daughters howling in its wake . Its serpentine body oozed venomous liquid grace, broken only by the arbitrarily squat neck and broad shoulders that made up its upper section, affixed to which were a pair of stout arms that ended in massive claws, grippers, gougers, sole-thorns. Beneath them sat a smaller pair, thin and light, rippers, slashers, wound-scythes. A dozen fins ran along each side of its midsection, like oars protruding from a sea-steed's gunwales, sweeping the waves behind it as it continued its hunt, aided by a long, flagellate tail that ended in a set of cruel spikes. Miniature sky-jewels dotted its body, luminescent against the salmon-dwelling's black roof, a reminder to all observing that beauty and danger oft resided beneath the same hall.

_"__All_ units, this is LOCCENT, kaiju has surfaced nine klicks southwest off the coast of Zarubino, forwarding coordinates. Search and destroy, engage at will. Over."

To the east she strode, proud, defiant, wading down the whale-road to spill battle-sweat, to make murder, to feast the ravens upon the flesh of this monster with temerity to crawl from Niflheim's depths before the first threads of Fimbulwinter's blankets had yet touched the land. The sky-candle had dimmed, but the ship of night sailed the sea of stars, illuminating with lunar light the gargantuan Valkyrie in the waves, clad in war-shirt of icy blue trimmed by snowy white. She continued along the ship-field, grim determination in each step, an avenging angel, a shieldmaiden of ferrotitanium, bearing proudly on both shoulders dual sigils, emblazoned in red; one a carrion-skua displayed with wings elevated and crowned by a single star, the other a snowman flexing its twig arms set against a stylized snowflake. Down the warpath she walked, bearing life-beater and forestbane in sinister, carrying wound-teeth and winter's breath in dexter, armed and armored to cancel the Ragnarok.

_"__R_oger LOCCENT, this is Frozen Heart, reporting contact with kaiju. Homing beacon set to active transmission, you should be receiving my coordinates now. Forwarding as backup measure. Moving to engage. Over."

It rose from the whale-road, water dripping from its glinting scales, murder in its six glowing eyes, blowing spray from its nostrils like a surfacing ship-thrower, though it could have easily devoured any Earth cetacean and still be left discontent. The upper half of its equine head bore massive antlers, skull bashers, helm-breakers, but its lower half was more crocodilian, combining to form a jaw that opened wide and deep and triangular, rimmed with dagger teeth, like an abyssal void that swallowed any sense of beauty its bioluminescence may have inspired. It locked on to its target and roared a challenge, a single undulating call of hate that shook the very air around it as its lowered its head, pointed its antlers, and lunged, trampling a path toward the iron huntress that was to be its foe.

_"__A_LT FOR NORGE!"

She sprinted down the whale-road, swift as a coursing river, steel wings boldly unfurled as a tilting hussar of old. A raging fire burnt in her heart, a piece of heaven-cinder crafted in the forges of man, granting strength to her limbs as she blared her own challenge and struck. Machined fist met organic helm with sounds of thunder, once when depleted uranium knuckles crashed against scaled kaiju skull, then again when the pistons to the kinetic strike module activated, slamming all the force of a great typhoon into the fell creature's face with and driving it back beneath Aegir's plains.

"LOCCENT, this is _Svenja_-actual, apologies for the static, got hit with some chop," Kristoff radioed back, pulling his Jumphawk into better position as his copilot adjusted the camera pods. "Live feed should be coming through again any second now, over." As soon as the gale forces from the opening strike stopped trying to toss his aircraft aside, Kristoff leaned over in his seat, pulled a carrot out of his knapsack, and bit into it. He was not particularly concerned. After all, in the stories, brave Sigurd always triumphed over rapacious Fafnir and made it home to win the maiden.

Frozen Heart had chosen her slain, and whether by her steel or the steel of her brothers, its _wyrd_ would come to pass.

* * *

_Southpaw, _Elsa thought, and as Anna's mind amplified the command, she felt Frozen Heart shifting stances, just in time to catch the recovering kaiju in the jaw with a retreating right jab. She stepped in with another one, then turned her body and swung a left straight into the creature, knocking it back but not down as the pistons in Frozen Heart's left elbow continued to slowly reset.

There were many things Elsa liked about the CQW-3 "Megadeus" kinetic strike module. True, it was a little less powerful than Model 1 "Roll of Nickels" Tesla fists or CQS-12 elbow rockets, but it produced much less waste heat, and not only did the thick armored plates that protected the forearm make a decent shield as well as a wonderful club, but the extra protruding section that protected the power piston also gave her one _wicked _elbow. She was not, however, fond of the long recharge time. Which was why she was currently at the helm, keeping the kaiju at bay with cautious strikes, while Anna focused on getting the Jaeger's oversized left fist ready for the next power blow. Bilgesnipe snarled and slashed at her with a claw, but Elsa saw it coming and slipped beneath the strike, adding a twist that smashed a left elbow into Bilgesnipe's jaw and a cross-step that placed it back into orthodox stance, right in the monster's blind spot. With another snarl, Bilgesnipe turned around and lunged, claws outstretched to rip and tear the Jaeger's metal guts.

Then an indicator light blinked green, a mental nudge floated through the Drift, and Elsa let go, passing primary control to Anna as if she was politely handing over a gravy boat at a formal banquet. "Passing the command ball," it had been called back at Jaeger Academy, an exercise meant to facilitate Drift-compatibility in teams whose personalities complimented rather than supplemented each other. Three years after the Academy, the transitions were now almost seamless, and they could easily and seamlessly switch back and forth at will. A fully recharged piston hook crashed right into Bilgesnipe's face, knocking it down again, and Elsa could have sworn she saw several of its teeth fly out, glistening in the moonlight. She felt Anna tug on her mind and let it pull her back into command. As the kaiju shook its head to clear it, Elsa punched out with her right arm and felt Frozen Heart respond in kind. The Jaeger's fingers retracted, folding into armatures inside its forearm. Armor plating shifted back and the barrel of a Type-15c _Bingshan_-model cryo-cannon spun out of its wrist, powering up with a low hum and crackling glows.

"Time to put this guy on ice."

_Oh, my God, Anna, you did not just say that_, Elsa pinged through Headspace as her thoughts crystallized into an icy blast. Next to her, Anna was preparing as well, bringing the kinetic strike module's pistons back into charged position. Horizon Brave's pilots, the ones who'd pioneered the maneuver, had called it the "sub-zero suckerpunch", and had been more than happy when they saw the girls use it during a joint drop.

And then searing pain exploded up Elsa's arm as Bilgesnipe revealed itself to be not as dazed as it appeared, ducking down before throwing its head up angrily like a bronco trying to dislodge a stubborn horsefly, and impaled Frozen Heart's cryo-cannon upon the prongs of its antlers.

* * *

Anna hissed in empathic pain, some from her link to the Jaeger, more from her link to her sister. She always hated that feature of the Drivesuit, even though she understood the reasoning that pilots who felt the damage to their machine were more likely to take defensive action than pilots who only saw the damage through a set of monitors. _It's okay, Elsa, just chill out, _she thought, which got her an exasperated grunt in Headspace as Elsa fought through the agony of impaled arm and terrible pun.

The kaiju's attack came from below, and it sent Frozen Heart's icy payload arcing harmlessly overhead to splash into the sea a hundred meters out. Fortunately, while Frozen Heart's arm was locked into place, so was Bilgesnipe's head, and Anna quickly took the shot, slamming a quick left into the kaiju's face. Unfortunately, that particular move also pushed the creature's antler deeper into their Jaeger's arm, eliciting another jab of empathic pain through their Drivesuit and a another anguished cry from Elsa, who felt the worst of it as she continued struggling to free her limb. _Oops! Sorry! _Anna thought, before wincing as one of Bilgesnipe's claws smashed into Frozen Heart's exposed right side. But Saab's engineers had done their job, and the sloped plating held as impact foam and alloyed springs compressed with the blow. Anna grit her teeth as she blocked another claw swipe. She couldn't hit it without hurting Elsa more. There was only one option.

"Need a light?"

Frozen Heart's left arm whirred into motion again, only instead of the kinetic strike module, the Perdition incendiary gauntlet mounted in its wrist roared to life, sending a brilliant fiery stream right into Bilgesnipe's chest. The kaiju stopped what it was doing to beat at its upper body, which was now covered in flame as incendiary gel splashed all over it, seeping into the cracks between its scales and searing into flesh. It bucked up and down, and with a toss of its massive head, sent Frozen Heart flying overhead before diving back underwater. Anna tried to relax and let Frozen Heart's inertial stabilizers run its calculations using her own sense of balance, but it was the recovery of her sister, always the picture of sophisticated grace, that had completed the motion. And so it was, the union of Anna's unbridled instinct tempered by Elsa's anchored reserve, that a 1600-metric-ton war machine tucked itself into a diveroll and fluidly rose back up on its feet. Fortunately, the earlier antler impalement had not damaged any of the internal armatures, and Elsa quickly converted the cryo-cannon back into iron hand as both sisters raised Frozen Heart's fists in a fighting stance.

Not that it mattered to Anna, who was more incensed at almost being dumped on her behind than anything.

"It is not nice to throw people!" She yelled as Bilgesnipe's outline appeared on her sensors again. The creature was missing several patches of external scales, and in some areas sporting blister boils in their place, but it still came at them in a leaping tackle, screeching with rage. And though Anna had always been a more instinctual fighter compared to Elsa, who preferred a more analytical approach, in this case her instincts led her to block the kaiju's overhand blow, grab on to its wrist, step under its chest, hook the Jaeger's other arm under its shoulder, and _badunkadunk _the hip in a textbook _seoi-nage_.

_Good technique. _Anna felt her sister's approval through headspace like a congratulatory text after a secondary school swim meet. _We need to hit the kwoon after this. _She could have sworn there was a winking smiley face attached to the end of that thought.

However, the beast was simply too long to be tossed in such a manner, and she was only able to lift it awkwardly over her shoulder. So she did the next best thing, shrugging and dumping it over to the side. Bilgesnipe landed on its back with a thud and a tidal wave. It snapped its jaws angrily, positioning its limbs to clamber back to an upright position, but Anna was not going to have any of that. The sea floor was the anvil, and Frozen Heart's elbow was the hammer as Anna spun around, kicked out the Jaeger's legs, overrode the inertial stabilizers, and dropped 1600 metric tons of Jaeger into the kaiju's ribcage.

_Too bad we don't have a Tesla fist,_ Anna thought as she climbed out of the elbow drop. _That could have literally been the most electrifying move in Jaeger combat history._

_The last thing we need is more outlets for your puns, Anna._

_Oh, come on, grow a sense of hu - wait a minute, 'outlets' within the context of us getting an electrical weapon? OH MY GOD ELSA DID YOU JUST MAKE A FUNNY-_

_I'm really glad no one can hear us in Headspace._

* * *

Applause reverberated through the LOCCENT command center, although Marshal Kerensky found it difficult to cheer with the Shatterdome crew. With a practiced eye, she looked upon the camera feeds and noted that Elsa's body language was coming through as she methodically jockeyed for position, attempting to secure a _kimura _lock on the kaiju. It was a good move, as disabling one of the arms would allow for exploitation of future openings, but something still bothered her about this particular sortie. She wanted to tell herself it was probably nothing - after all, kaiju were but animals, giant and dangerous animals, perhaps, but still just animals - but PPDC Marshals were also not allowed to tell themselves it was probably nothing, which left her standing here, stewing in unease.

"Excuse me, my lady?"

"Just 'Marshal' will do," she replied, continuing to monitor the situation as it developed. The kimura wasn't quite successful, Bilgesnipe having shrimped away and knocked Frozen Heart aside with its free claw, but it had still earned a blue gash across its chest from the CQW-28 Thundercloud combat saw in the Jaeger's right elbow for its trouble, followed by a football kick to the head before another blast of flame from Anna sent it scurrying underwater again.

"Ah, yes, of course," Hans replied. "I was just wondering, is this what Their Highnesses usually encounter when they march out in a Jaeger?"

"Define 'usually'," Kerensky answered, raising an eyebrow as she turned to look directly at Hans for the first time since the sortie had started. The Danish prince opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to have swallowed whatever it was that he was going to say as soon as her gaze fell upon him. Inwardly, Kerensky shrugged. She tended to have that effect on people. "If you have concern, voice them. I do not bite, unless bitten first."

"Well," Hans said, pausing to choose his words as if he was gingerly navigating a field of eggshells, "what I mean is - and please, understand that I have full respect for you and your people and what you do for us - the public is generally under the impression that the kaiju come, and then a Jaeger hunts it down and kills it, just like that, and then it's the same again a month or so later. But this one seems...abnormally tough?"

"Yes," Kerensky replied as she glanced back to the deployment map that showed the relative locations of her Jaegers. "Understand, though, this not good match-up. Kaiju has over four hundred metric tons on Frozen Heart. They doing quite well, all things considered." As she said this, however, it did occur to her how curious it was that Bilgesnipe seemed to have swam silently past every other Jaeger in its path, only to suddenly surface right next to the one Jaeger in the whole Shatterdome that it substantially outweighed. Still, they did not have to kill the beast. Eden Assassin would be there in three minutes, as would Cherno Alpha. Ironically, Nova Hyperion, her fastest Jaeger, ran into some issues with its towing cables, and would be there in five.

"I see," Hans replied. "Well, I'm sure they're in good hands." He added, looking up at the camera feed. The kaiju had been bloodied, but it still fought on like an enraged wild boar with several spears sticking of it. It charged again, making up for cracked sternum with sheer bestial rage. Frozen Heart, for its part, met it head on, switching body language from cautious outfighter to frenzied kickboxer, catching it in a clinch and throwing Thai knees into its ribcage whenever the opportunity arose. "Such fighting spirit. Then again, considering their commanding officer, I'm not entirely surprised." The Danish prince smiled wryly as he looked back at the Marshal. "You _must _tell me how it felt to fly missions against the kaiju before we had Jaegers to even the odds."

"Everyone I meet comments on that," Kerensky replied, returning the smile. "Duty to Motherland, nothing more."

"Still, as a fellow aviator, I must admire your courage," Hans said. "I used to pilot an F-35 myself in the _Flyvevåbnet_. Top of the line, brand new, one of forty-eight purchased as part of the Joint Strike Fighter program before this whole mess with the kaiju started. I still can't imagine flying interdiction against a kaiju in Uncle Sam's latest and greatest, much less than an aging Su-35 and actually coming back to tell the tale." He paused for a few seconds to watch the fight, then continued. "Marshal, if I may, there is one other matter that concerns me..."

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm looking through this system specs booklet that your technicians have helpfully provided me. I noticed that the original operating system has been replaced by a...Xanatos Industries Coldstone 9.5?"

"Yes, upgraded last year. Better than default Windows-Symbian hybrid," Kerensky replied, before turning back to her displays. "Frozen Heart, advisement, you now approach edge of ocean ridge. Ensign, forward topographic chart with recommended vectors."

"I see. Well, Xanatos Industries _is _a world leader in...just about everything, come to think of it, so I suppose that's fair enough. I am, however, somewhat more concerned about the right arm, as well as the communications suite and the storm cannons. They seemed to have been replaced by Chinese parts?"

"With respect, Representative, I am Marshal, not chief engineer. If you find loadout problematic-"

"Oh, not at all," Hans replied. "It's just that, as you know, the late King Haakon is only survived by his two daughters, neither of whom have wed." Kerensky raised an eyebrow at this. Having grown up in a country formed of regicide, the ways of royals were still strange to her even as two of them ended up under her command, and she was not really sure why he considered it relevant at all. "What I mean, Marshal, is simply - is it safe?" Hans asked, slowly, once he too had come to realize this. "I am aware that the Chinese have deployed three Jaegers in combat, and none can doubt their record, but if we are to go by their record on quality control as a whole...well, Scandinavia is still somewhat relevant in the technology sector, too, and given the global economy, we have plenty of men and women willing and able to work. If there are additional requirements, I have contacts within Saab and Nokia and several other homegrown firms that I can speak with. I'm sure we can come up with something."

"Your people designed Frozen Heart for rapid response. We could not add on much for armor, so we had to upgrade weaponry and other things," Kerensky replied before turning back to her screens. "Huawei Wind-Ear comm suite has superior range and radiation shielding over Nokia Kantele. Norinco Type-15w cryo-cannon proven design, compact model of what Horizon Brave has. Crimson Typhoon uses Thundercloud saws to great effect. As for storm cannon, kaiju have habit of closing to melee before pilots can acquire firing solution. Elsa herself requested replacement with something to assist in close quarters battle, so we changed it out for T-9 Angel Wings. No need for worry, Representative. _Kitaiski _make quality when they set their mind to it."

"I see. I hope I have not caused any offense, Marshal; I was merely concerned about Their Highnesses' safety." He paused, attention drawn to the camera feeds, which showed the kaiju rushing in with another flurry of claw swipes, and Frozen Heart covering up in a defensive posture, armor housing on its left arm raised like a shield. Soon an opening appeared, and it bashed the kaiju with backhanded blows, one, twice, the third time knocking it down. The cryo-cannon on its right arm locked into place again, preparing to fire. "And I see they are in _very _good hands indeed."

"None taken, Representative. And thank you. I do try."

* * *

The cryo-shot caught Bilgesnipe dead on in the chest, and the creature roared in pain as it instinctively brought its massive arms up to protect itself from the searing cold. It turned to the side and threw itself into the water as frozen fractals spiraled all up and down its exposed arm, diving underwater again for safety. The violent motion sent waves crashing up, and as they died down the sea surface became dotted with what appeared to be miniature glowing glaciers, as shards of kaiju tissue lay adrift, encased in layers of ice that prevented Kaiju Blue from bleeding into and toxifying the sea.

_Yeah! We got him!_

_Don't get cocky, Anna. That thing's down but not out._

There was a fwoosh as Anna instinctively reacted to the splash coming from behind them by launching another incendiary stream. That, too, hit home, but Bilgesnipe's momentum hurled it into Frozen Heart, arms outstretched to grapple, even as more layers of hide and muscle and suet melted off from the flames and its frozen left arm shattered from the force of the impact, splashing into the sea like a calving glacier.

Anna took the command ball and ran with it. The good news was that after a couple of backwards stumbles, she had a stable clinch and was now pummeling for underhooks while Elsa looked for an opening. The bad news was that now the flaming incendiary gel was now all over Frozen Heart. However, titanium steel was more durable than kaiju hide, and combined with their Jaeger's already large coolant reserves, the flames were not much of a worry. As Anna continued to grapple with the creature, throwing, twisting, throwing the occasional Thai knee into its mangled midsection or rabbit punch into the gaping wound where its left limb used to be, suddenly she felt a mental nudge from Elsa.

_Bajiquan_.

Thousands of images popped up in the shared Headspace in an instant, filtering through Anna's mind like a flipbook as she felt Elsa go through them. Shoulder check. Forearm smash. Horse-stance punch. They played like a sped up cartoon, most of them in black and white and faded like an old Mickey Mouse short, but a select few in glorious technicolor.

Good old Elsa, being all calm and analytical even as she was helping wrestling down a giant monster.

Then Anna cried out in pain again as Bilgesnipe's secondary claws tore into Frozen Heart's midsection. It was not enough to deter her from carrying out the combination, though. She stepped forward, and Frozen Heart followed, ramming its hip against Bilgesnipe's body, creating enough space to follow up with a powerful elbow check. An _enhanced _elbow check, as the circular saw mounted in Frozen Heart's right elbow roared to life once more. A streak of blue drew itself along Bilgesnipe's chest and left shoulder, and there was a splash as one of the kaiju's offending claws fell into the sea. The beast roared, reared back, and that was when Anna and Elsa, connected as one, stepped forward, turned their hips, and smashed Frozen Heart's kinetic strike module into Bilgesnipe's chest, bowling it over as bone crunched, tissue scrunched, and flash-frozen scales and surface tissue splintered off. Part of its side seemed to have collapsed inward a bit, too, and Anna liked to think that was at least a couple of ribs cracking. As the creature stumbled back, Anna stepped forward and gripped it by one of its antlers, pulling it close as Elsa charged up the cryo-cannon once more.

_Yes, third time would be the charm, _Anna thought as she tried to come up with a suitable pre-mortem one-liner. Her mind synced with Elsa's as they prepared to finish the beast off. Right when the cryo-cannon's indicator beeped green, she settled on "Have an ice day".

And then there was the sensation of a superheated corkscrew being rammed up her spine as the thagomizer on the kaiju's tail pierced Frozen Heart's back.

There was another feeling, like being right inside a giant church bell when someone decided to ring it, as Bilgesnipe broke her hold with its remaining arm and jammed an antler into the Conn-Pod.

Sparks danced across Anna's Drivesuit, sending jolts of pain crashing all over her body as the circuit-laden undersuit burned with tactile feedback. Debris fell everywhere, broken consoles, ripped plating, and Anna felt something crunch into her side with the sound of a gardening trowel. Before she could register the pain, though, a piece of falling Conn-Pod instrumentation impacted against her helmet, and everything went black.

* * *

She had kept her nerve through it all, squeezing off a cryo-shot through the pain, but it went wide, only grazing an antler and forcing the kaiju to dive underwater again. Still, Elsa was glad for the breathing room. It gave her time to start system diagnostics, to see just how much damage her Jaeger had taken, as well as check the arrival times of her teammates and make sure that everything was okay.

_"__Yoo-ho_o, Frozen Heart, this is LOCCENT. Check status, over."

"This is Elsa,' she replied. "Damaged but not out, it barely missed the reactor. I'm okay, and Anna-"

Elsa turned to check on her sister, and her breath stopped.

"Anna?" she whispered.

Her sister's arms lay limply at her side.

"Anna?" More urgently, more frantically now. The left side of her Drivesuit had collapsed inwards, and Elsa could see blood oozing down Anna's brow through the Drift-helmet.

_"Frozen Heart, we didn't quite catch that. You were saying?"_

Elsa did not hear a thing. All she could feel was a tightness in her lungs, and blood pumping up to her head, and the blistering sun upon her back. Her ears rung with the din of kaiju roars and toppled buildings and panicked crowds, punctuated by the occasional boom of military ordnance firing ineffectually, and the combination of rising dust and sea spray choked her and stung her eyes as she dug through the rubble and cradled Anna in her arms.

"No, no, no, you're okay Anna," she whispered, arms quivering as her eyes fell upon the gash that a piece of falling debris had opened up on her sister's forehead. "You're okay, I got you…"

* * *

"No response, Marshal," Oaken said, scratching his head as he continued to raise the Scandinavian Jaeger. Across the Shatterdome, a wave of silence washed over the assembled crew, as if their congratulatory words and expectations had been frozen in place. For a kaiju to do so much damage to a Jaeger was simply unprecedented.

"Keep trying," Kerensky growled. "Run remote lifesign scan. Raise other Jaegers and tell them to hurry."

"Marshal, what's that dot over there? It seems to be growing bigger."

Kerensky looked up to the display that Hans was now pointing at, and her eyes narrowed. "Kaiju signature," she spat, and then cursed under her breath. "Ensign, give me tactical!" Kerensky shouted into the comm, her commanding voice cutting through the morass of silence in the Shatterdome like an ice saw breaking through a frozen lake. Hans was saying something behind her, but she ignored him, attention instead being drawn to the display that Oaken was now bringing up.

"Marshal?"

She continued to ignore Hans, checking updated topographic vectors and ETAs, and breathed a small sigh of relief.

"Marshal, how soon until backup arrives?"

"Forty-five seconds. They must only hold out for forty-five seconds," she said, closing her eyes grimly. Eden Assassin, from the look of things, with Cherno Alpha a close second. She opened the comm channel again. "Frozen Heart, hang on as long as possible. Your comrades come for you. All other units, double time, now!"

"Ah, yoo-hoo, Marshal?"

"Yes?" Kerensky whirled on Oaken, eyes staring at the LOCCENT mission controller.

"There is a problem," Oaken replied, not missing a beat. He had been working under her for years. That was more than enough time to get used to things.

"What problem?"

Oaken brought up another display before her, one that showed 3D renditions of two brains, electric flashes of neural activity running across the surfaces. Kerensky narrowed her eyes. The image was similar to what happened during Command Ball exercises, the right hemisphere slowing down, the left hemisphere speeding, but there was something different about this one that made her fervently wish Oaken was not about to say what she thought he was about to say.

"Marshal...Elsa's chasing the RABIT."

Marshal Anastasia Andreievna Kerensky closed her eyes and slowly exhaled as she rubbed at the bridge of her nose.

"_Bozhemoi."_

* * *

_"Frozen Heart, if you can hear me, disengage and get out of there, now! Your comrades will catch it and kill it!" _

Elsa's ears still rang.

She had ripped off a chunk of her dress and held it against Anna's head - that's what you were supposed to do, right, to staunch bleeding? A thousand thoughts burst into her head at once - should we hide and hope it ignores us? Should we try to run for the airport? Maybe flag down some other refugees and hope they take us? What if Anna had broken bones? Or internal bleeding or something? What it was like in the movies where you couldn't move someone because it might make their injuries worse?

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Just a random aberration, that's all the thing that hit San Francisco over a year ago was, some kind of mutant from global warming or oil spills or nuclear testing during the Cold War or something. It was the same with the one that attack Manila half a year later. The scientists had agreed that there was no way the oceans could sustain a population of creatures that size, and the sheer differentiation in phenotype confirmed that they could not possibly be the same species. Bill Nye had even stepped out of retirement and gone on TV to say so. Even if there were more of the creatures, lightning never struck the same place twice. Just a diplomatic trip to San Francisco, to pay their respects to the dead from K-Day, to show that Norway stood with America in solidarity. And then a family trip to Disneyland in LA, followed by a few days in beautiful, sunny, Cabo San Lucas.

Her parents had assured her it was safe, and then _It _had risen from the sea to make mockery of their assurances.

"Mamma! Pappa!" Elsa found herself shouting frantically as the screams of missiles streaking overhead followed by the thundering detonations of their payloads nearly burst her ears again, even though she was old enough to know that despite Kay's assurances, Mamma and Pappa probably weren't coming back. Neither were Gerda or Kay, for that matter, laid low not by the kaiju's rampage, but by the panicked driving of other refugees that had resulted in a 50-car pile-up all along the Boulevard Forjadores and forced her and Anna to make their escape on foot. Unfortunately, while the kaiju might not have seen two little girls, the falling debris caused by its rampage was not so discriminating. As Elsa attempted to lead her sister to the airport, all she had heard was Anna's alarmed cry, and then she felt something push her aside as drywall and glass and concrete rained down upon where she formerly stood and where Anna now lay.

"Talk to me, Anna, say something," Elsa whispered, sniffed back the tears as she stroked Anna's hair, dust and floating bits of insulation swirling around them like mountain snowfall. "You're okay. I got you. Say something, anything, please…" From somewhere to the side, the kaiju roared, followed by sound of crumpling steel and shattered glass and exploding fuel tanks. The tears threatened to flow again, both due to the ever-present dust stinging at her eyes and the knowledge that somewhere in Mexico there were parents who would never see their children again, because those children had sacrificed themselves to diver the monster's attention away from the fleeing civilians - from her. _No, you monster, I won't cry. Not for you, _Elsa thought to herself, holding Anna tight as the ground shook all around them. _Never for you._ But so many had given themselves for her already. Mamma, Pappa, Gerda, Kai, those unnamed pilots, and now possibly her little sister.

_I was the eldest. I was supposed to protect you. _

_What a failure I've been._

* * *

Warrant Officer Kristoff Bjorgman was confused. Looking down, he didn't know why Frozen Heart wasn't moving, and from the looks of things neither did Bilgesnipe as it burst from the sea for another go. The kaiju roared and feinted forward, coiling back in anticipation of a counterstrike that never came. It cocked its head in befuddlement, then circled around, looking to the left, and to the right, sniffing occasionally at Frozen Heart's shoulders like a raven inspecting a freshly downed warrior before returning its attention to the damaged Conn-Pod. It stared at the Jaeger intently, as if fascinated by the tiny humans it found inside, as if it were making a _connection _between the iron giants that had beaten so many of its predecessors to death with their bare hands and the tiny, frail apes that they had come expecting.

Kristoff had a front-row seat, though now he was wishing he didn't.

Some had tried to pay him money. Others with precious metals, or even food rations. Once there was a young man who tried with all three to be snuck aboard, presumably so he could take shaky cell-phone vids for everlasting YouTube fame. There were many who would strangle a baby for the chance to be so close to a Jaeger. Or a kaiju. Or a Jaeger while it was fighting a kaiju. Not that Kristoff would have taken them, even if they did strangle a baby. Especially if they strangled a baby, because that would mean they were crazy, and no crazy person was boarding his _Svenja_.

Yes, no crazy people allowed, which did not explain why he was telling his copilot to keep the Jumphawk steady while he tried something he felt like he was sure to regret, if he lived long enough for it.

Reindeer had plenty of natural predators. Mankind had decimated most of them, but ever since the environmentalists started gaining ground, the old challenges that his people had faced for centuries returned. Tigers, bears, and especially wolves, both the ones that walked on four legs and the ones that walked on two, but his grandfather's M/28-30 Mosin-Nagant had served his family well over the years. It was an old weapon, a familiar weapon, a weapon that had stopped both Nazi and Soviet in defense of the homeland, and it had prepared Kristoff for the Barrett M107CQ that he now held in his hands. Normally Jumphawk pilots were not armed, but ever since the trade in kaiju parts began, it had become a necessity. Calmly, just like he was watching over the family herd in the forests of Lapland, he knelt down, popped in a magazine, worked the action, looked down the scope, drew a breath, and, with a slow controlled exhale, pulled the trigger. The first shot barely tickled Bilgesnipe as it bounced against the kaiju's brow, and Kristoff muttered a curse as he ignored the ping of spent shell casing and aimed again. The second hit a little lower, but still did no damage.

The third, however, sent a .50 BMG full-metal jacket ripping and tearing right into one of its eyes. Though the anti-materiel round could easily penetrate an engine block, kaiju bone proved too strong for it, and it instead ricocheted all over the orbital cavity, kinetic energy and hydrostatic shock scrambling and pulping ocular tissue like an egg beater in a mixing bowl. There was a burst of Kaiju Blue along the side of Bilgesnipe's face, as if someone had squeezed a paintball against it until it popped, and it roared in rage, pausing its inspection of the disabled Jaeger to scan for the offending insect that had dared attack it.

Kristoff felt his heart freeze as he felt Bilgesnipe's remaining five eyes lock in on him. He immediately dropped the magazine, emptied the chamber, locked the action, open, then quickly stuffed the rifle back in its storage cabinet before slamming the door and sprinting for the pilot seat, while shouting frenzied commands to his copilot as the kaiju began lunging towards them.

"Go up go up go up go up go up go up go up GO UP!"

* * *

_"Snap out of it, Elsa. Only a memory. Wake up."_

Elsa could not hear Kerensky's orders through the comm.

_"Only a memory, _soldatka_! Wake up!"_

She could, however, feel a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you don't have to protect me any more?"

"Anna?" Elsa turned her head in disbelief, then looked back down, confused at the two Annas that now faced her, one a frail young girl who had saved her from falling debris, the other a proud young woman standing tall in her light teal armor. "I don't understand, how can you be here? Wait, no, it doesn't matter, you have to get away, it's not safe here-"

"Continue the memory, sis."

Elsa looked back to the young Anna in her arms. Yes, it was all coming back to her now. Anna was always petite of build, and a particularly tough slab of concrete flooring had rested against an outer wall, creating a sloped roof that shielded most of her body, although her limbs elbows and knees were covered in scrapes from when she had pushed Elsa to safety, her ankle had twisted from stumbling as she did so, and a piece of fallen scaffolding had opened up that gash on her head. But soon a pedicab driver - Ignacio, his name was - had found them and taken them to a tour bus before pedaling off to find other survivors. That tour bus, formerly an affiliate of Carnival Cruise Lines, had been repurposed into an evacuation vehicle which eventually dropped them at the airport. And from that airport it had been a bumpy flight to San Francisco, where the Norwegian Consulate had finally arranged medical treatment followed by a lonely flight back to Oslo.

"I remember now," Elsa said, understanding. "But wait, I felt you go dark in the Drift. Are...are you alive?"

"I think so?" Adult Anna looked down at her hands and scrunched up her face in thought. "I mean, if you want to be technical I think I'm actually one of those subconscious whatchamacallits, because I remember blacking out too. But don't worry, I'm not quite dead yet." She paused, standing with one hand at her waist and another on her chin, looking up at the sky pensively. "I think."

"Well, even if you're not completely real, you're a pretty convincing copy," Elsa replied, a light smile coming on her face for the first time in what felt like forever. "Right. So what do I do now?"

"Now?" Anna replied, smiling back. "Good question. I mean, we've established that this is all in the past, so what _do _you do now?" She giggled. "Sorry, that was kind of cryptic, but I just couldn't resist. Besides, I'm in your head, and this stuff happens at like a billion thoughts a second anyway, so it's not like we lost any time." She reached out to Elsa with an outstretched hand. "And I think you've hit upon the right answer all by yourself."

"Yes. Yes, I have," Elsa said resolutely, looking down at the young Anna in her arms one last time before taking adult Anna's hand and letting her sister pull her to her feet. "Thank you, Anna." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and, just as she had done dozens of times prior, let it go. "The past is in the past," Elsa murmured, feeling the change wash across her in Headspace, a refreshing sensation of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining as the designer flats she wore morphed into solid combat boots. Her H&M stockings, torn and ragged from constant running, first mended themselves, then glowed brightly blue as lines of circuitry weaved themselves around her legs before encasing themselves in polycarbonate plating. The transformation continued like an advancing glacier field, rising from bottom up like break of dawn, consuming the skirt and long-sleeved blouse that she wore, enveloping her body in armor the color of sea ice. _Yes, that was it, just let it all go._ A pauldron, emblazoned with the PPDC insignia, materialized on one shoulder and then the other, followed motes of spiraling light that hardened into upper guards, vambraces, and gauntlets. At her feet sat a helmet, its visor reflecting not the scared little girl she used to be, but a warrior woman who now knelt down and, with deft and practiced motions, fixed her loose hair into a martial braid that held it securely in place.

"I think I'm just going to have you do my hair next time. Seriously, I get the feeling it would be be faster for me to literally walk over to your room and have you do it than to stumble through it half-asleep only to have you fix it for me anyway."

"You'll get the hang of it in time, Anna," Elsa replied, a small measure of levity threading back into her voice as she stood up proudly and donned the helm once more. The torn streets of Cabo were gone now, replaced by snowy cliffs of Dovrefjell, and instead of the thick clouds of dust and smoke, there was only cold and clear alpine air as the mountain glowed white with the light of day. There was danger among the beauty here too, and the tumultuous energies of the Breach raged ominously below the cliff face where she stood, but she was now ready. "Come on," Elsa said, turning back to her sister. "Let's go face this thing together."

But Anna only shook her head sadly.

"I can't," she replied. "Subconscious whatchamacallit, remember? I'm just a memory, even if I seem to be a particularly strong one given life by the parts of the Drift Theory textbook I've already forgotten." She looked down at her hands again, and there was a fizzling effect, like a television that had suddenly experienced a loss of signal. "Yeah, this mentalist stuff is kinda weird."

"Anna, you're fading," Elsa said, stunned by what she saw.

"Yes, well, some people are worth fading for." Anna looked back at her, the smile still on her face. "You have to stop him, Elsa. For everyone. For Mamma and Pappa. For...for me, if it comes to that, if a subconscious manifestation - hey, that's the word - is all I am."

"Wait, don't go-"

"You can always find me in the Drift, sis."

"Anna-"

With a radiant starburst, the image of her sister disappeared, and Elsa swallowed her words, for no one was there to hear them. She turned back to the cliff face and wondered why she never saw it before, a massive bridge of crystal that arched across the Breach and led to Frozen Heart's Conn-Pod. The first step was heavy, but the sense of power that flowed through her was familiar, and after that, each step was easier and easier, until she was almost flying across the chasm. Soon she was back in the command seat, entry doors slamming as she felt the familiar heft of Frozen Heart's control grips in her hands again.

_I am one with the wind and sky._

* * *

Reality hit her like a sledgehammer, and almost immediately after waking up Elsa felt a tight constriction around her temples that made it hard to think. Due to something involving squares and cubes that not even she fully understood, doubling the pilots quadrupled the neural handling capacity, which meant that now she was struggling to handle four times her ordinary neural load.

The very first thing she did was check the lifesign monitors.

_"Frozen Heart, respond!"_

"This is Elsa," she replied through gritted teeth, never so glad to hear Marshal Kerensky's voice. "I'm back online, and Anna's unconscious but still alive. Orders?"

_"Disengage immediately. Cherno Alpha and Eden Assassin will arrive in twenty-five seconds."_

"Understood," Elsa replied, fighting to keep the quivering out of her voice as she banked to the side and beginning the arduous walk back home. She glanced at the combat clock and wondered how it was that the kaiju hadn't attacked her in all of the twenty seconds that she was out.

Then a kaiju roar and a brilliant explosion from a hundred meters out in the air answered that question.

"No," Elsa whispered as she saw the green blip disappear from her display panels. How many more good men and women must sacrifice themselves for her? She quickly zoomed in on Frozen Heart's camera mounts and was relieved to see two tiny parachutes floating in the sky. Unfortunately, so did Bilgesnipe, and under the circumstances, Elsa did the only thing she could. Frozen Heart's foghorn cut long and clear across Posyet Bay, and Bilgesnipe responded as she hoped, immediately turning its attention back to the Scandinavian Jaeger and lunging with more speed than a creature that size should logically possess. Still, she planted her feet, and thanked her stars that Anna had, in her last moments of lucidity, charged up the kinetic strike module. Frozen Heart's left fist popped Bilgesnipe right in the snout, imparting such force that its nose literally caved in. Both of its frozen antlers shattered from the shockwaves of the blow, and it fell back into the sea. But it was a controlled fall, and as Elsa tried to disengage and open up more distance, the kaiju's tail came swinging, stabbing into Frozen Heart's side and sending it stumbling back.

Elsa grunted in pain, for her ribs felt like they were on fire, her inner ears throbbed with the pressure of trying to maintain her balance, and the pungent scent of copper filled her nose. She barely had time to stabilize herself before Bilgesnipe was lunging at her again, single arm winding up for a follow-up smashing blow. She raised Frozen Heart's arms to block, but the strike still rocked the Jaeger, and her cry of pain was cut short by a sudden jarring of teeth and an explosion of metallic taste that filled her mouth. Elsa grit her teeth and lashed out, swinging Frozen Heart's oversized left arm at Bilgesnipe like a club, but the kaiju easily ducked under the clumsy blow and, with a single fluid motion, enveloped Frozen Heart with its serpentine body and squeezed.

_This can't go on, _Elsa thought. Her right arm was trapped in the monster's coils, locking down the armatures that could have transformed her right fist into the cryo-cannon, and though the Thundercloud saw buzzed, it could not bite deep enough to dislodge the creature. She had to get back on the offensive somehow. But the strain of solo-piloting only increased as time went on, and she felt as if her head was placed inside a vise. She was seeing stars already, and her temples pulsated with pain as she tried to engage her weapons, only to feel a sudden popping underneath her right eye, and then everything in her field of vision seemed to taken on a reddish hue. Bilgesnipe snapped at her head, and it took nearly all of her concentration to simply reach up with her free left arm and grab it by the neck, keeping it at bay for now. The flamer could work, but she wasn't sure if she had the mental faculties to launch it any more.

_I'm going to die here, _Elsa thought as she tried to fight through the pain. Bilgesnipe was putting the squeeze on harder now, while its remaining arm alternated between trying to break her grip on its neck and clubbing at the back of Frozen Heart's head. _This is it. I - _we're _- really going to die, so close to being saved. _The painful constrictions in her head were now matched by similar sensations through her body, and she twisted around to look upon her sister for one last time. _Anna, I'm sorry, I couldn't do it_. An agonized cry escaped her lips, echoing through the Conn-Pod as well as through the comm feed back to the Shatterdome. _I tried, I really did, Heaven knows- _The memories flooded in her head again. Elsa did not know whether it was by pure chance or some guiding force in the sisters' collective subconscious, but two stray memories stuck out in particular, like a lighthouse in the sea of time.

One, of an American boy back at Jaeger Academy, telling her after a particularly close Kwoon session that real combat was fluid, that sometimes you took risks and lived with the consequences.

The other, of a more innocent time before the monsters came.

One memory of who she was, and one of who she is now. Elsa could barely breathe by this point, both from the psychic strain and from the kaiju's death grip, but she could still spit out a final sentence of defiance.

"Hi, I'm Olaf," she hissed, holding on to every last detail, the rotund body, the lopsided head, the coal eyes and the twig arms and the carrot nose. A desperate thought came to her, and if this was it, then her final memory in the Drift could at least be a happy one with her sister. Frozen Heart moved with her thoughts, reaching out with its one free arm to pull Bilgesnipe's head in close. "And I like warm hugs."

The Arc-9 nuclear vortex turbine in Frozen Heart's chest vented its fury and, within the blink of an eye, burned a hole the size of a tennis court clean through Bilgesnipe's upper body.

The kaiju opened its mouth, but nothing came out as its body slackened and it fell harmlessly into the sea.

Elsa did not see any of this as she, too, fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

**A/N: Like what you see? Put up a fanfic rec on TvTropes! Or any other forums you frequent. Chapter 3 is in progress and will be up in...a bit. And if this is hitting you in the feels, just remember: it all has to end at least somewhat well for them, because as we all know, Gipsy Danger was the first Jaeger casualty in the Kaiju War in 2020.**


	3. Götterdämmerung

**Chapter 3**

**Götterdämmerung**

"_Кто-то пел на заре...Дом родной покидая…"_

The deep basso voice called to her, its sonorous melody working its way through the cold oblivion that was her mind, enveloping her thoughts in a warm tenderness she had not known for the past five years.

"_Будешь ты в декабре…"_

"_Once upon a December…"_ Elsa groggily murmured the final verse as she slowly opened her eyes for the first time in forever. The bed she currently lay on was comfy enough, but the burn scars from the circuitry suit still felt raw all over her body, and her head felt like a clan of dwarves had taken up residence in it and turned it into their family smithy. Not helping matters was the sterile smell crawling up her nostrils, the blinding whiteness of her surroundings, and the constant beeps of an electrocardiograph assaulting her ears. She tried to get a sense where she was, but the vision in her right eye was still blurry, and she could only focus on the giant of a man who sat beside her. "Where am I?"

"The medical bay," Aleksis Kaidanovsky replied, every bit of hardness in his ordinarily accented English now hidden behind a layer of velvet. "Do not worry, _lapushka_. Everything is alright now."

"Everything...alright…" Elsa whispered to herself, not quite believing it after everything that happened. Suddenly, a more important thought hit her. "Wait - Anna, what about Anna? Is she okay? Where is she-" Elsa wanted to get up, to get a better view of everything around her, but her bones ached, and she simply lacked the strength for anything more than an awkward halfway ab-crunch. _Okay, that didn't work,_ she thought as she sank back into the mattress. _Maybe better it didn't, _she added, noticing the intravenous drips feeding into her arms which probably would not have appreciated any sudden motions.

"Easy, girl, easy," Aleksis said, reaching out with a reassuring hand in case he had to restrain her from trying it again. "Your sister is stable. Sasha is with her now."

"Oh." Well, that was good. "How did I get here?"

"You do not remember?" Aleksis asked. "You killed the beast, by yourself no less, and then you blacked out. Sasha and I, we caught your Jaeger before you could fall into the sea. The Marshal cut power before you could burn yourself out from the neural load, and then the Jumphawks brought you both in."

There was a knock on the door, and Elsa's eyes darted towards the source of the sound. It wasn't Anna, though, but rather an orderly who had come with a tube apparatus of some sort and a fluid-filled bag. Aleksis turned to the orderly and said something in Russian, and the man nodded and left.

"Aleksis, what was that?"

"It is dinner time," the Russian replied. "You are awake now, so I told them to put up the feeding tube and bring you some warm soup."

"Feeding tube?" Elsa suddenly felt dizzy again. "How long was I out?"

"Three days," Aleksis replied. "I will be honest, you were in pretty bad shape when they pulled you out," he added upon seeing the shock in the younger woman's eyes. "Nosebleed, earbleed, a - what was the word - hemorrhage in your eye. You bit your tongue, too, but that seemed more like accident. It was good that the Marshal cut power when she did, before you could have gotten seizure and _really _hurt yourself or worse."

"Then Anna-"

"As I said, your sister is stable. Your injuries only because of neural load in addition to circuit burns. She did not have that, so do not worry." The orderly came back with a serving trolley full of edibles that immediately overrode the pervasive scent of sterile wipes and sent Elsa's stomach rumbling like Frozen Heart's engine. "Just focus on recovery," he said, dipping a metal spoon into a steaming bowl before lifting it out and blowing on it. The savory aroma of chicken and ginger and scallions and a dozen other ingredients wafted towards Elsa's nostrils, and her stomach rumbled again. "Now open up, _lapushka_."

* * *

"Well?" Sasha asked in her native Russian as her husband joined her by Anna's bedside. As Aleksis pulled up a chair, Sasha turned back to her patient and affectionately stroked the young woman's hair. Anna's chest heaved slightly with each breath, and the EKG beeped slowly with each heartbeat.

"Elsa is fine," Aleksis replied. "She just woke up, actually. The orderly says she may be able to move on to solid food soon, and then in a few more days she will be ready for physical therapy. And then…" He looked down at Anna, still sleeping serenely as the monitors continued their progress."Well, the therapy will be a week, at least…"

"She cannot know, not before then," Sasha replied. There was a brief spell of silence as the two Jaeger pilots held hands, continuing to stand vigil over their younger comrade. "Have you taken your metharocin tablets today?"

"Of course," Aleksis replied. The modern Jaegers now all came with radiation shielding, but the Mark-1s were constructed in an era when haste and desperation had caused certain safety features to be overlooked. Metharocin had been developed as a stopgap to that, and while the drug was not one-hundred-percent effective, as the case of Tamsin Sevier demonstrated, on the whole it had been a literal life-saver to many Rangers. _A shame that is all it was,_ he thought bitterly, and then quashed the feeling as soon as it came. Stepping up to defend the _rodina_ was not just duty, but a sacred honor, and he knew Sasha felt the same way. Still, sometimes he could not help but be reminded of the sacrifices they both made as part of the first generation. _There was no use agonizing over past winter snows,_ Aleksis thought, ignoring the impulse to glance at his wife's belly, and instead squeezed her hand in support.

"The monsters, they will regret this," Sasha said, an edge of steel returning to her voice, barely containing the rage bubbling underneath. Beside her, Aleksis nodded his assent. There would be a reckoning the next time the kaiju showed their ugly heads.

No one hurt their little girls like that.

* * *

"No no no, Marshal, allow me, I insist."

"Nonsense, Representative. You in my town, how can I force guest to pay?"

"There was no force involved, madam, only _noblesse oblige_."

Marshal Anastasia Andreievna Kerensky paused at the unfamiliar words, and Prince Hans of House Monpezat took the opening to beckon over the waiter and hand over a Danmarks Nationalbank corporate card.

"Well played, you sly devil," Kerensky said, a wry grin slowly creeping upon her face. The prince had extended his stay at Vladivostok until the sisters' recovery, which meant as ranking officer, she had the duty of escorting him around during off-time. The Pan-Pacific Defense Corps was, at its core, a voluntary coalition of the willing, which meant that all Marshals had to spend at least some time entertaining VIPs when they came to call. Kerensky ordinarily hated these things, for she would much rather be left alone to do her job - that is, coordinate the kaiju genocide - in peace, but this particular instance turned out to be not so bad.

It helped when said VIP was not what the Americans called a "REMF", and actually understood a little something about the necessities of war, having flown on the front lines just like she used to.

"Guilty as charged," Hans replied, smiling back. "I am, after all, a prince. Had to be sharp in the royal household. You know how it goes." His voice changed, affecting a reasonable facsimile of the Queen's English. "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die."

"I bet you say that to all ladies," Kerensky replied. "Too bad for you, I am not one. Only proud worker and soldier of the Russian Federation and the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps." Hans laughed at this. Soon the waiter had returned with the final check, and upon receiving a rather generous tip from the Danish prince, bowed and left. "I appreciate this, truly. Both for the meal and for your country's continued support of Jaeger program," Kerensky said, getting up and donning her military peacoat. "We can stem tide, but prices still rise, even here. This dinner would have cost at least ten percent less had you come one year prior."

"I understand," Hans replied. "It's the same all over the world." The easy smile he wore dropped for the first time all night. "We had thirty-percent inflation for the past two years until we instituted rationing, and even then there are still problems with hoarding and black markets and such."

"Looks like everyone now reliving my parents' lives," Kerensky said as she performed a last minute check of all her belongings. "Well, thank you again for dinner."

"It was my pleasure, Marshal. After all, it's the least I can do after the hospitality you've shown me. This was truly an eye-opening opportunity."

"Speaking of which, is there anything else you would like to see?"

"Well, your people have been quite accommodating during my stay here. I think I've seen all I needed to."

A buzzing suddenly came from Kerensky's handbag, and her brows furrowed as she heard the accompanying ringtone. It was a high-priority message from Shatterdome staff, and she quickly fished out her work smartphone. Her facial expression changed from one of concern one of pleasant surprise.

"What is it, Marshal?"

"Elsa just woke up."

Hans blinked.

"Then I must amend my earlier statement, for there is something else I would like to see."

* * *

_Knock-knock-knock._

"Come in," Elsa called from her sickbed. The door opened a crack, and then a little wider as Warrant Officer Kristoff Bjorgman poked his head in.

"Hey, Elsa? I heard you were awake, and I just thought I'd pay you a visit. That fight, it was pretty tough, and-"

"I'm glad you made it out safely, Kristoff," Elsa said, smiling back at the Jumphawk pilot. "Come on, pull up a chair. Aleksis says I've been out for days. I could use some company after all that time." She made a face as she strained to pull herself up to a sitting position, then glanced at the bouquet Kristoff held in his hand. "Aww, are those for me?"

"Ah, yeah. Just a little something to thank you for saving my life," Kristoff replied, handing over the bouquet and pulling up a chair. "Seriously, I owe you though. If you hadn't drawn that thing's attention from us, I'd probably be sleeping under the salmon-hall right now."

"Oh no, if anything, I should be thanking you," Elsa said, accepting the flowers and giving herself a moment to take in their light fragrance. "I was chasing the RABIT like a rookie in her first Pons simulation, and we were sitting ducks until you came through. Really, you saved Anna and me. Speaking of which, have you visited her yet? How is she?"

Kristoff hesitated.

"Uh, yeah, I just came from there, your sister is - Marshal on deck!"

"At ease," Marshal Kerensky said, striding into the room with Hans in tow. "Welcome back to land of living, Ranger. Warrant Officer Bjorgman, air wing has finished initial review on replacement Jumphawk. Report to helipad Delta-Five-Three for flight test. Dismissed."

"Yes ma'am." Kristoff snapped off a salute, then turned for the door, though not before turning back and mouthing the words _we'll catch up later_.

"Marshal." Elsa was surprised at the visit. "What brings you here?"

"They said you had awakened," Kerensky replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Still a little lightheaded, but a lot better than when I first woke up," Elsa replied. "Aleksis came to visit me."

"Did he? Good man, Aleksis," Kerensky said. "Him and Sasha, they switch off visiting you and your sister for the past several days during off-time. Your sister is stable, by the way."

"Ah, yeah, Aleksis told me," Elsa said. "The doctors say there's a few more days of tests," she added, splaying out her arms with controlled motions to emphasize the IV drips still hanging from them. "I can't wait to get out of this sickbed so I can see her again."

"Did they? Then I hope you pass them with distinction," Kerensky said. "Well, I only came to check and make sure you were fine, and that medical was not pulling my leg." She turned around, and then suddenly did an about-face. "Ah, my apologies. I almost forgot that you have not yet met formally. Elsa, this is Representative Hans Monpezat of Denmark."

"Your Majesty." Hans stepped forward and bowed. Kerensky raised an eyebrow, and Elsa tried to stifle a blush. It had been so long since the last time someone had addressed her as such, and with Kerensky there...it was like inviting a boy you liked to your home for dinner and having your mother constantly refer to you by your pet name from preschool, while your dad sat in the living room in his bathrobe, cleaning his side-by-side while offhandedly remarking how they should totally go hunting sometime.

"Please, just call me Elsa," she said. "Everyone else does."

"I believe I am supposed to kiss your hand as well, but given the circumstances, I don't think the IV lines would appreciate your arms being jostled around," Hans said. Though she understood the words, they seemed strange, as if she was hearing them through an Autotune filter. Elsa's brows furrowed, and she bit her lower lip as she tried to place where Hans's accent was coming from.

Then she realized that Hans was speaking to her in Danish.

"I'm sure I can find it in me to forgive the breach of protocol," Elsa replied, switching to her native Norwegian. The Scandinavian languages had always been mutually intelligible to each other, and the familiar words of home were a welcome contrast to the mix of languages heard around the Shatterdome. "I didn't get to ask you this before the drop, but what brings you here?"

"Well, ever since I replaced Representative Grunditz in his post on the Subcommittee on Kaiju Defense and Security not too long ago, I had determined that it was necessary to witness the workings of a Shatterdome firsthand, so that I may better discharge my duties," Hans replied. "After all, Herre Grunditz performed admirably as a pioneer to this new era, and his footprint upon history is large indeed. As his successor, I have some very large shoes to fill."

"I see. Well, best of luck in that," Elsa said, nodding. "He was a good man," she added. Mårten Grunditz had been the Permanent Representative to the UN General Assembly from Sweden when Scandinavia's involvement in the Kaiju War began, arguing passionately for their entry in the wake of a kaiju attack that Elsa remembered clear as day. She had just come of age, then, and was still settling into her new role as ruling monarch when the news hit. A Category II kaiju had become the first to choose flight instead of fight when confronted with a Jaeger, attempting to using its speed to run past Cherno Alpha as the heavy Russian Jaeger moved in to confront it. Ultimately, the extreme cold of the Arctic tundra combined with the kaiju's unfamiliarity with the terrain had slowed it down enough for Cherno Alpha to eventually catch it and kill it, but it had almost made it past the North Pole, and the implications of what could have happened had it pushed past south into warmer climes were...unpleasant.

On that day, the nations beyond the Pacific Rim received a grim reminder that they lived in fear of the kaiju and were disgraced to survive on the courage of others, but in the end, caution had won out across Europe, save for two exceptions. The United Kingdom continued to provide funding and resources due to its ties with Canada and Australia. Meanwhile, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland had gone one step further, formally establishing the Scandinavian Defence Union and fielding their own Jaeger for the war effort. And while Norway provided their Queen Regnant and Crown Princess for the front line, Sweden's contribution was Grunditz, liaison between the PPDC and the SDU, balancing the needs of five nations upon his back instead of merely one.

"Anyway," Elsa said, mind returning to the present. Hans would indeed have big shoes to fill, but he seemed like he could handle it. "I hope you enjoyed your visit, then?"

"Oh, immensely. The Marshal has been very accommodating," Hans said. He cracked a smile, then continued. "And the sight of you and Princess Anna marching out in Frozen Heart is truly awe-inspiring. I can't help but be reminded of the virtuous monarchs of old, Edward the Black Prince, Gustavus Adolphus, Boudicca of the Iceni, leading the charge to protect their people."

Elsa flushed red again at this. Back when she and Anna had first stepped through the Jaeger Academy's gates, the press had naturally drawn parallels between the two of them and seemingly every other European royal who had taken on the responsibilities due their position. Edward, Gustavus Adolphus, and Boudicca, as Hans had pointed out. Marcus Aurelius. Charlemagne. Jan III Sobieski. Elsa never cared much for the comparisons, finding them to be generally self-aggrandizing to the point of embarrassment, especially when one well-meaning article attempted to compare her to her own ancestor King Haakon VII who had kept Norway on the right side of history between 1940 and 1945. Anna, meanwhile, agreed...but only in that particular instance, as she seemed to always have a habit of "accidentally" sending Elsa web links or leaving article clippings of such in her view.

"Nobility obliges, Prince Hans," Elsa replied simply, returning the smile. She figured Hans didn't need to know all that, and he could probably tell, anyway.

"Indeed it does," Hans replied. "Can't let the Brits have them all, can we?"

"Representative, friendly reminder that combat log debrief with K-Science and J-Tech begins in fifteen minutes," Kerensky cut in. "If you would kindly join me..."

"Of course," Hans said in English. He turned back to Elsa and bowed again. "I'm sorry, but duty calls."

"I understand," Elsa replied as the Marshal and the Prince turned to make their exit, before her brows furrowed in confusion. "But Marshal, I haven't finished my combat report yet." Kerensky paused to about-face for the second time, and the woman who Elsa had always known as a strict taskmaster that had pushed her to her limits and then over them uttered words that Elsa thought would never come from her mouth.

"No one will die if your report has not arrived on my desk prior to midnight. Just rest up and focus on healing."

* * *

"As they say, all kaiju are different, but some kaiju are more different than others." Dr. Anton Sevarius, head of K-Science at the Vladivostok Shatterdome, chuckled at his little joke, while Kerensky maintained the placid expression on her face that soon killed his attempt at levity. "Anyways, while most kaiju differ in terms of phenotype, this particular kaiju has proven to contain a most peculiar set of adaptations never before seen in previous specimens," he continued, clicking on his mouse and bringing the PowerPoint presentation to its next slide. "Based on autopsy results, I and my team have found the primary differences between Bilgesnipe and previous kaiju are as follows:

1. High concentrations of cartilaginous tissue in skeletal structure, especially along the spinal column.

2. High concentrations of adipose tissue in the subcutaneous layer, analogous to blubber deposits shared by cold-weather mammals such as whales, seals, and walruses.

3. Extremely polished scales in the epidermal layer, densely arrayed, coated with a thin mucous-like film. Said film repels liquids to great effect.

Cryptozoology is still running tests, but I believe we have enough data to begin combat analysis and application brainstorming. Now, before I move on, are there any questions?"

There was a brief pause of silence, and then Kerensky bade him continue.

"First, the cartilage," Sevarius said. "As you know, cartilage is softer than bone, but at the same time it is also more malleable and thus less prone to breakage. You might think of it in terms of the phrase 'bend, not break'. Contrast earlier sorties," he said, clicking again, and the screen now came alive with a vid-capture of a gigantic rhino-lobster hybrid, one of its claws broiled red, the other an iced-over stump, charging in pain-infused rage before Frozen Heart put its kinetic strike module through its head with the sound of a watermelon being dropped from an apartment balcony. "To this one," he added, now switching to the fight against Bilgesnipe. "The more martially inclined of us might notice that the kaiju seems to almost be 'rolling with the punches', as it were."

"Now, on to the blubber layer. In earth mammals, blubber serves the primary purpose of providing insulation in cold climates. Here, we suspect it serves a dual purpose. One, it supplements the more flexible skeletal structure in providing a cushioning effect against blunt trauma. Two, it provides additional insulation, reducing the penetration effects of Frozen Heart's cryo-shot."

"You weren't kidding, Marshal, about this being a bad match-up," Hans whispered to Kerensky as Sevarius continued to present his findings. The Marshal nodded, jotting down notes as the doctor moved on to his final point.

"Finally, we move on to the the scales and mucous. Again, I would like you to contrast previous sorties with this one." An early battle, Horizon Brave against Meathead. The bull-like kaiju, already battered, bleeding, and bruised, snorting in defiant challenge at the Chinese Jaeger that strode towards it, stopping only to open up with the dual cryo-cannons on its shoulders. The supercooled liquid splashed all over kaiju, and in a flash it was on the ground, front half encased in a thick layer of ice, hind legs still energetically pawing the air as its secondary brain didn't quite get the memo that it was already dead, even after the Chinese Jaeger casually, contemptuously stalked over and put its foot through the beast's head. The video now cut to Frozen Heart again, facing off against what looked like the scaled up unholy union of praying mantis, fire ant, and rhino beetle, mandibles chittering as it bounded towards the Jaeger, but a blast of incendiary gel caught it right in the thorax, and its chittering became a piercing shriek as the gel seeped through previously battered cracks in its exoskeleton and cooked it in its shell.

_I can never eat lobster again,_ Hans thought as Sevarious continued to explain.

"As said before, the scales are highly smooth in surface and densely arrayed, and the mucous layer excels in repelling liquid," Sevarious said, cutting to Frozen Heart against Bilgesnipe again. "Being that Frozen Heart's ranged weapons are liquid and gel based, we believe that this explains the relative lack of effect from the incendiary gauntlet and the cryo-cannon. If you zoom in and slow down, you'll see that rather than adhering to the kaiju as in past sorties, a somewhat substantial amount of the incendiary gel and the cryo-shot simply sloughed off, and much of the resulting damage were surface level injuries rather than the devastating fight-finishers in previous sorties."

Sevarius did not ask for a pause this time, but one still existed as Kerensky thought about the implications of all this.

"Doctor," Hans called out, suddenly. "From what you're saying...it seems almost like this kaiju had evolved specifically to counter Frozen Heart."

Sevarius shook his head.

"Evolution does not work that way, Your Highness," the doctor said. "It a million generations for even a single adaptation to spread among a population, and the sheer variety in kaiju phenotypes indicate the impossibility of that. The traits seen on this particular kaiju are advantageous to any creature, especially one that shares a habitat with all the other kaiju we have seen so far. The prevalent theory still holds that they are but pre-existing organisms of an alien ecosystem, escaped to ours via the Breach."

"It does not matter," Kerensky cut in. "They adapt, we adapt. They grow bigger, we will build more powerful Jaegers to fight them."

"Indeed," Sevarius replied. "Physical adaptations can be countered by the boys in J-Tech as they appear. I personally am more concerned about the turning point of the sortie."

"What, Queen Elsa, coming through even when piloting solo?" Hans asked.

"No, the thagomizer strike that led up to that."

"The - wait, what?"

"Thagomizer, Your Highness. It is the scientific name for the spiked tail that Stegosaurid dinosaurs have." Sevarius explained. "There are those who theorize that that the kaiju might not be the mindless beasts we thought they were, and this recent battle does lend some credence to that notion."

"Doctor, regarding this last piece, what about it makes it noteworthy?" Hans asked. "It had one more weapon at its disposal, and then it used it. I should hardly think much intelligence is required for that."

"Oh, they certain pass the mirror test, as all those smashed skyscrapers can attest. And of course they have a degree of bestial cunning," Sevarius said. "But no, that is not why I think that. If you review the tapes, you will notice that all the time, whenever it rose or dove, it always kept that tail underwater. It could be instinct…or it could be holding its trump card. Considering that it had that weapon the whole time, and held it in reserve until an opportune moment when it could do the most good, I'm more inclined to believe the latter." The doctor paused. "Or harm, I suppose, depending on how you look at it."

"Interesting analysis," Kerensky mused. "Excellent work, doctor. I must admit, I had not witnessed this side of you. Though given your civilian employment, it really should not surprise me."

"Xanatos Industries hires the best at every level, Marshal," Sevarius replied with a curt bow. "Thus concludes K-Science's part of the debrief. If there are no additional questions, I will pass it on to J-Tech?"

Kerensky nodded, and Sevarius stepped down to be replaced by Major Dell Conagher, head of J-Tech, who promptly pulled up a PowerPoint deck of his own.

"The problem, from what I see, is twofold - how do we rearm Frozen Heart, and how do we arm our future Jaegers," Conagher said, his light Texan accent lending a soft-spoken genteelness to his words. "With regards to the former, we've identified the following vulnerabilities and potential solutions." The display changed now to Frozen Heart grappling with Bilgesnipe, throwing the occasional elbow that cut wounds across the beast's upper body. "The elbow-mounted sawblade housing is advantageous in grappling, but as we're seeing here, it lacks stopping power against larger kaiju. Can't penetrate deeply enough into vitals, and they're only getting bigger." The screen now shifted to Frozen Heart being constricted in the Kaiju's coils, the saws still spinning but no longer biting into anything. "I recommend replacing it with something longer and more bladelike, so as to improve penetration."

"Good point," Kerensky said. "Anything else?"

"Personally, I believe removal of ranged weapons may have been premature. Like my daddy always said, best way to stop some mean mother-hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind is a gun, and when that don't work, use more gun. Gone are the days when something like Coyote Tango's cannons could blast kaiju from afar...but there's no reason we couldn't, say, saw some length off those gun barrels on the storm cannons, stick an improved cylinder choke in there, and then load them up with K-shot. Heck, you give me some time and I reckon I'd probably be able to wrangle up some kind of multi-barrel apparatus. Shells for distance, slugs for mid-range, shot for close quarters."

"Very well, make it so," Kerensky ordered. "In fact, you can start on it after this. As I understand, the Angel Wings were damaged and will take months to fully repair due to lack of parts, but storm cannons still in storage. Have Engineering mount those on to reduce wait time."

"Will do, ma'am," Conagher replied, snapping off a salute. "Now, all that worrying about blubber armor and flexing spines aside, blunt force weapons won't ever go away from Jaegers. After all, when you run out of ammo, and all you got is a fist, then you put up your dukes and make your daddy proud. But there's no reason we couldn't put some studs or cesti or something over them, so as to concentrate all the force over a smaller area. Creating kind of a 'brass knuckle' effect, as it were."

"That makes sense," Kerensky said. "In fact, I believe Australians are already doing this for their Mark-5."

"Well, who do you think gave them that idea?" the department head said, grinning as he turned off the presentation. "That's all I got. Any questions?"

* * *

"_Beautiful, powerful, dangerous, cold! Ice has a power can't be controlled!"_

The working song echoed through Maintenance Bay 04, and Chief Engineer Pabbie Stein found himself humming along as work crews clambered all over the damaged Frozen Heart, the din and clangor of their tools and equipment providing harmony to the throaty melody. His crews were in high spirits as they saw to the repairs that would bring Frozen Heart back online again, and Pabbie envied them for their enthusiasm. Command aged a man in its own way, and where his subordinates could simply look upon the progress they made towards restoring the Jaeger to battle-ready condition and be content, Pabbie could only look upon their work with worry. It seemed that his department had been getting continuously busier since the early days, and the damage...the chest was a relatively simple thing, but the Conn-Pod, full of delicate instrumentation, was more difficult.

_Better bracing, _he thought, _I'm going to have to forward that to the crews in Sydney._ Striker Eureka was going to roll out in two months, the first of the Mark-5s, and any known vulnerabilities in existing technologies needed to be ironed out before deployment.

"_Stronger than one, stronger than ten, stronger than a hundred men!"_

Pabbie's thoughts turned back to his own Jaeger, and he looked down to his clipboard and grimaced. The Marshal had not been happy when he informed her of how long the repairs would take. Each Jaeger was designed to be a unique machine of war, the intention being to keep pace with the variety of adaptations that each new kaiju seemed to bring to the table. That had its advantages, but recently the disadvantages of that decision were coming to the forefront. Frozen Heart had been a relatively late addition to the Jaeger force and constructed to be more modular, utilizing many pre-existing parts already in use on other Jaegers, and even then it still had its logistical issues.

Pabbie shuddered to think what would happen to the more specialized Jaegers should they encounter similar strokes of bad luck.

* * *

"You know, Marshal, I can't help but think upon Dr. Sevarius's observations," Hans said as he and Kerensky marched out of the meeting room, "and note what a terrible coincidence it all is. I understand that given the timespan of, well, the universe, the idea that something evolved with all those traits is not impossible or even improbable...but then having it turn out to be a kaiju which then gets into a fight with the very Jaeger that would have the worst chance against it?"

"It is nothing to be worried about. We will simply build bigger and stronger Jaegers," Kerensky replied. "You seem concerned about something. If it is about Elsa and Anna, you have my assurances that I will do everything I can to keep my Rangers safe. Well, short of keeping them on bench, that is."

"I understand, and I appreciate your efforts," Hans said. He paused, as if unsure whether he should continue on the subject, before deciding to go ahead. "Still, I'm just not sure we've considered all the options. There was an idea floated in the Huffington Post yesterday-"

"Defeatist garbage," Kerensky snorted. "Tactical advantage of defense never holds against strategic advantage of offense. You know my mentor back in service, he always told me - 'an enemy avoided becomes obstacle, an enemy destroyed ceases to be threat.' It was the same during Great Patriotic War, it will only ever be same here."

"With respect, Marshal...a war of attrition only favors the kaiju."

"Striker Eureka will roll out in two months. More will follow, until we can finally follow them home and hit them where they live." She paused. "We are the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps. We were there when first Jaeger killed beast from the pit, and we will be there when life is strangled from last beast's throat. Whether it takes one year or hundred, we will kill them all or die in attempt."

"That's very inspiring, Marshal," Hans replied, after a brief pause. "I see why you hold command here."

"Thank you," Kerensky said, smiling lightly. "I try."

* * *

For Elsa, the next few days went by with a blur, seemingly one test or interview or checkup after another. It had been hectic, and she barely had time to think about anything by the end of the day, but now she finally had enough strength in her to run through the basic calisthenics battery that resulted in a sign-off from the Shatterdome physical therapist. The psychs and the other doctors had looked her over as well and cleared her from bedrest. There had been a round of clapping from Aleksis, Sasha, Kristoff, Oaken, Pabbie, Hans, plus Pang So-Yi and An Yuna of Nova Hyperion as well as the Volk brothers who now piloted Eden Assassin when Elsa finally took her first shaky steps outside the hospital bed that had restrained her, and then there had been an expression of utter shock on her face when stern and businesslike Marshal Kerensky had come in bearing a cake.

"What?" she asked, pulling out the combat knife she always carried and cutting the first slice for Elsa. "Am I not allowed to do nice things for my Rangers?"

They had laughed, and eaten, and joked for the next half hour or so before one by one, the others filtered out of the room for late-night training, leaving only Kerensky, Hans, and the Kaidanovskys. Elsa knew there was one more thing she had to do.

"Thanks for everything, Marshal," Elsa said, smiling. "Really, I'm glad to have met you, all of you." She looked down at the ground, at her own two feet that she was now standing on. "But now there's something I've been waiting to do ever since I woke up." The young blonde looked back up, beaming with happiness. "Aleksis, Sasha, I know you've been visiting Anna when I couldn't, and I'm grateful for that, so could you do me one more favor and take me there please?"

"Yes, of course," Aleksis replied, clearing his throat. "Come, follow us."

Down the hallways they went, the five of them, quietly, calmly, until they had finally arrived. Elsa took a deep breath and reached for the handle. She paused as her hand neared it, afraid that it was all just a dream, that as soon as she touched the brass grip in anticipation of looking upon Anna's bright face again, she would wake up only to find herself supine in her hospital bed, with nothing but her pain to keep her company.

"_Lapushka-_"

Elsa turned to Sasha, who too had paused.

"Is something wrong?" Elsa asked. She was used to being called that by the Kaidanovskys by now, even though she never knew what the word meant, but right now the tone seemed different from all the times that they had referred to her and Anna as such in the past. Sasha exchanged a glance with Aleksis at this, which only pushed her suspicions further. "Sasha? What is it?" Suddenly, she found herself in tight embrace from the older Russian woman, and then in an even tighter one when Aleksis joined in.

"Elsa, please understand that we had to do this. We didn't like it, but it had to be done for your recovery."

"Wait, what? Sasha, Aleksis, I don't understand," Elsa said, confused as the two Russian pilots let go, and she finally went for the door. "What do you mean-"

In a way, not being in the Drift made it worse.

At least in the Drift, when you chased the RABIT, you weren't really aware of it all, and it was like being carried along for a ride in the river, and then someone would pull the plug and you'd wake and tell yourself it was just a memory, it wasn't real, not any more.

In real life, there was nothing, only the gnawing pangs in her gut as Elsa's vision narrowed in on a comatose Anna still in her sickbed, the oxygen mask affixed to her face removing any hope that it was okay, that her sister was just sleeping and if she came a couple of hours later everything would be fine. A strangled cry escaped from Elsa's throat, and the next thing she knew she was on her knees by Anna's bedside, stroking her sister's hair and whispering to her that it was okay, that they won, that _why?_

"I'm sorry, Elsa," Aleksis said softly, placing a heavy hand on Elsa's shoulder. "She took a bad hit to the head in the Conn-Pod, but she - she was _stable_."

_How dare you._

She wanted to lash out, to scream, to hurt someone, everyone for putting her through this.

_What gives you the right-_

"Please understand, _lapushka_, we did not like having to do this-"

_Stop calling me that! I am _not _your daughter, and you are _not _my parents! What right do you have to go behind my back like this, for my "own good"? I am a grown woman! How dare you do this to me? _

"Do not blame them, Elsa," Kerensky's voice cut in, sharp as ever. "They acted on my orders. Such measures deemed necessary for benefit of your recovery, undistracted by other things."

_You. I trusted you. For the past two years I've trusted you to watch over me, to watch over _us, _and I never knew you could be so cold. Is this what command does to someone?_

But she kept it all in because the good girl she always had to be knew, deep inside, behind the rage and grief, that they were right, to some extent. As distraught as she was now, knowing back when she was still on her sickbed would have been worse. The cold calculus of war made it painfully clear what the answer to that question was - yes, this is what command does to someone, because one pilot up and running was always better than none.

Yes, Elsa understood, but it did not make it any easier.

"Just...leave us be for a while," she whispered, blinking back the tears welling in her eyes. One by one, they acquiesced. First Kerensky, turning abruptly, the click-clacking of her boots clearly audible as she strode back to her office. Then the Kaidanovsksys, though Sasha had pulled up a chair for her and hugged her again before they left. Hans was the last, but he too had something for her.

"I'm sorry," he said in Danish, moving in to drape his jacket across Elsa's shoulders. "I didn't know."

"Thank you," Elsa replied, pulling the jacket tight around her before turning her attentions back to her sister. Hans gave a light bow, then exited the room as well. The doors closed, leaving only the sound of Anna's oxygen mask, the steady beeping of an electrocardiogram, and Elsa's sobs. Soon, though, a mournful voice could be heard, its melancholic melody filling the room and seeping out into the halls.

"_Let's go build another snowman..._

_We haven't done it in so long..._

_I never wanted it to be this way, Anna, please be okay,_

_Don't leave me on my own..._

_Had I known I'd have come sooner_

_To be by your side..._

_Talk to me, tell me you're fine…"_

* * *

"_See the beauty sharp and sheer, split the ice apart...and beware the Frozen Heart…"_

It was the end of night shift at Maintenance Bay 04, and the last few bars of the working song hummed along Pabbie Stein's lips as he prepared to consolidate the logs and close out. His crew had done good work; they were on schedule, and a recent directive had come down to use some of the older parts, reducing the needed delivery time even further, though privately he worried that doing so was a compromise of Frozen Heart's combat effectiveness in favor of getting it back on its feet. All of his technicians had left already, leaving him alone with the Jaeger before he locked up.

Suddenly there was a purring noise that flared briefly into a full-on roar, followed by a blast of warm air and the sound of groaning steel. Pabbie's heart nearly jumped out of his chest as his head snapped up to assess and his hand leapt to the comm set at his waist in case it was something bad. The chief engineer's immediate first thought was that someone had been negligent, had improperly secured a cable hook or left a pulley rig unlocked, and a multibillion dollar war machine was about to crash into the ground. Strangely, though, the sight that greeted him was nothing out of the ordinary, just the Jaeger sitting in its repair dock.

Well, maybe something just a little out of the ordinary.

_Could have I saw that left hand open and close like it was grabbing at something, _Pabbie thought. His mind briefly went to an old bit of Ranger folklore. _When you dreamt, your Jaeger dreamt with you._

And then Pabbie admonished himself for entertaining the thought. Such a thing was, of course, not possible, seeing as how the Jaeger's Conn-Pod was empty and disconnected, and all the failsafes were working normally. There were indeed stories from other Shatterdomes of maintenance crews being surprised on their night shifts by supposedly deactivated Jaegers twitching and turning while their pilots slept, but every time it was always something that happened to someone the storyteller knew, never a primary account. He never believed the tales himself, and had told off more than a few senior techs for passing such rumors around and giving impressionable newbies ideas. _I must be getting old_, Pabbie thought as he suddenly got a strange urge to take a closer look. Further diagnostics revealed nothing as well, but something bothered Pabbie as he punched in his time card and left the maintenance bay.

If he had imagined it all, did he imagine the heat shimmers emanating from Frozen Heart's power core, too?

* * *

**A/N:** Just want to thank everyone for the reads, faves, and especially the reviews. I've pretty much never gotten this much fic attention within such a short period of time (so you could say...that this was the first time in forever YYYYEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHH that this happened), and y'all are all kinds of great. On a sidenote, this story has made me learn a LOT more about Norway than I will ever need to know for the rest of my life.


	4. Coda

**Chapter 4:**

**Coda**

"Here's to us! Who's like us?" she used to say, until the answer to that question began to reflect reality too closely for comfort.

Sleep came to Elsa with difficulty in recent days. It came with difficulty to many Rangers once it became apparent that the disastrous sortie at Anchorage in early 2020 had not been a fluke, but a portent of things to come. But for Elsa, it came especially hard, for she knew how easily the Americans' fate could have been her own, and because she had a particular set of unique duties not shared by any other Ranger in the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps. The _Stortinget_ was in session, which meant she had to be back in Oslo to sign or veto the various bills that were to become law. For the most part they were relatively mundane things, taxes and allocations and public projects and so forth, but today it was different. So although Elsa was back home, the exquisite rooms and master-crafted furnishings of the Royal Palace did not help reduce her stress levels any.

Quietly, Elsa dressed herself and set out to do what she normally did these days.

The Ranger Memorial Project began as a worldwide grass-roots campaign. Too many Rangers were dying, and it was an effort to show those who remained that the people they protected still stood with them. The premise was simple: to raise a memorial to every fallen Ranger in each of their home cities at the least. The support was immense; its Facebook page got over seven hundred thousand "likes" on the first day. The actual funding, however, was a different matter entirely, for it was difficult to pay for such endeavors with leftover ration cards. Still, a small number were created; Beijing, for one, had a memorial dedicated to Horizon Brave's pilots that stood by the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square, and Romeo Blue's pilots had actual graves at Arlington as well as symbolic ones in their hometown and in the National Mall.

The memorial in Oslo, however, differed from all the rest in that it was much larger in scale. Where the others were dedicated to a single pilot, or two of them if they were from the same hometown, the Oslo Ranger Memorial was dedicated to every single Ranger to ever fall in battle. It stood proudly at the center of the Eidsvolls Plass, a marble statue of a Ranger standing bestride a miniature cityscape like a colossus, one hand extended reassuringly to the people it protected below, the other held high to ward off the monsters that had risen from the deep. The scene was supported by a cubic onyx base, and rendered in golden runes at the statue's feet was Elsa's favorite stanza of the Poetic Edda.

"_Cattle die, kinsmen die, you yourself die;_

_I know one thing which never dies: the judgment of a dead mans life."_

The other sides contained the same phrase, translated in Norwegian, English, and Russian. Engraved beneath was a growing list of every Jaeger sortie since Brawler Yukon against Karloff in Manila. A thin moat surrounded the whole thing, symbolizing the oceans from which the kaiju had come, and spiraling outwards were modifications on the traditional boots-rifle-helmet battlefield cross. For each fallen Jaeger, there was a sword, oriented vertically with the blades pointed down and planted upon a support base crafted out of debris from the last city they fell defending. Carved into each support were the names of the respective Jaeger and its fallen pilots, with a representation of the Jaeger's empty Conn-Pod resting atop each sword hilt. Elsa had originally wanted gas-powered eternal flames below each monument as well, but the elected officials were already reluctant to assign funding for what was, all things considered, a public decoration, and although Elsa had inherited the private royal coffers, the potential continued expense would strain even her considerable fortune.

Thus, in place of the eternal flames, there were simply firepits, which served its own symbolic purposes in a way. Though sometimes the snows or the wind or the rain would snuff out individual flames, as soon as it all stopped, some passerby would soon arrive to reignite the fires. Upon her arrival, Elsa immediately weaved through what was now being called the Field of the Fallen, checking on each headstone to make sure her former brothers and sisters in arms were warm through the night, starting with the one whose demise heralded the end of an era as her mind flashed back to happier times.

* * *

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Yancy Becket said, pausing to wipe his mouth from his near-spit-take just a second ago. "You girls are princesses? Like, full on princesses straight out of a Disney movie?"

"Well, technically I'm the only Princess," Anna replied. It was their first weekend leave after the Drift-compatibility tests that determined which pairs would go on to pilot the Mark-3 Jaegers, and the Becket brothers had suggested a night on the town in their native state. The Mexican delegation weren't quite feeling up for it, and the Aussies had been evicted two bars ago, which meant that in addition to themselves and the Beckets, the Canadians and Chinese were also with them. "My older sister here _who I simply adore_ came of age a couple years ago, so you're actually in the presence of Her Majesty Elsa of House Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Queen Regnant of the Kingdom of Norway-"

"The First of Her Name, Ruler of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm?" Raleigh interjected, the biggest cheese-eating grin on his face as he took a gulp of what he called "beer" but Anna knew was nothing deserving of the name.

"No," Anna drawled, looking at the younger American as if he was a crazy person. "Like I said, _Kingdom_ of Norway. One kingdom. Singular. Pay attention."

"Well, excuse me, princess," Raleigh replied, laughing. "We were unaware that places in the world still had kings and queens and stuff. Thought everyone traded that up for Presidents."

"There are twelve monarchies in Europe alone," Elsa said, sipping her blue martini, "out of forty-four nations in the world with monarchs who serve as their head of state. But as a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy, we do have a _Prime Minister_." She cocked her head to the side, raised an eyebrow, and smiled a smile full of queenly magnanimity. "And all this time I thought that American ignorance about other countries of the world was but an insensitive stereotype."

"Ouch. That hurts, your highness," Raleigh replied, holding out his glass for a conciliatory toast, which Elsa returned.

"Your Majesty-"

"Yes?" Elsa and Raleigh said, simultaneously, turning their heads to Ilisapie Flint, a Canadian Inuit woman who had traded her Jumphawk up for the Mark-3 Jaeger Chrome Brutus. The Norwegian and the American looked back to each other, Raleigh with that same cheese-eating grin, Elsa with a look of mock annoyance at the usurpation of her title.

"Ha, ha, real funny, Raleigh," Ilisapie said, sipping her Crown-and-Coke. "Ruling monarchs are referred to as 'Majesty'. 'Highness' is for princely rank and below. So Anna there," she said, as Anna paused from chugging her Cosmopolitan to give a little wave, "would be called 'Your Highness', but Elsa is 'Your Majesty'."

"Ah, right, I forgot you Canucks are part of the Commonwealth," Yancy said. "Okay, Elsa gets to be majestic, and Anna gets to be...high." He looked between the two girls, pausing in thought. "Hmm. Can't decide which I'd rather be."

* * *

"Your Majesty-"

The voice of one of her formerly silent bodyguards brought Elsa back to reality, and she turned and saw that the man held a small matchbox in his hands. Looking down, Elsa saw that she had been kneeling down in front of Solar Prophet's headstone, pointlessly clicking an empty lighter. She accepted the matches with thanks, and soon her job there was done. Elsa paused there for a moment, basking in the warmth, before moving on to Echo Saber. If only some of her other jobs were so easy.

Hans had warned her this day would come.

She had been angry with him upon learning that he, in fact, proposed it. For the first time in forever, the storm inside her broke out, but she had enough control to keep it on a leash for long enough to hear his explanation.

"I did what I had to do, Your Majesty. Our nations are hurting, and you just haven't been back often enough to see it," he had retorted in that meeting, remaining calm as ever and ignoring the shaking of the webcam from when she had slammed her palm upon the conference desk. "Inflation led to shortages, shortages led to rationing, rationing led to hoarding, hoarding led to black marketeering, black marketeering will lead to a loss of confidence in the social order and the unraveling of our societies at large. It's the guns versus butter dilemma. Jaegers can only be weapons of war, and highly specialized and technology-intensive ones at that. You and your sister are heroes, Queen Elsa, no one can deny that. But our people don't just need heroes, they need something that isn't just a weapon, something that can employ large segments of the population and stimulate infrastructure and domestic consumption besides. Perhaps the Jaegers' true legacy was always meant to be the first line of defense that helped us buy time for more permanent solutions."

Which brought everything full circle. Her people no longer had the stomach for supporting a war that seemed so far away, and their elected officials had passed a bill that would decommission Frozen Heart and instead reassign existing funds to the Wall of Life initiative. The Jaeger itself would be placed in the sunset task force, handed to a pair of backup pilots to hold the line until the Wall could be completed. Something about the plan still didn't seem right to Elsa, though, despite Hans's arguments. Marshal Pentecost out of Anchorage had been promoted to Grand Marshal, commanding officer of all three remaining Shatterdomes, and he seemed confident in the Jaegers' ability to continue the fight, so Elsa had taken the near-unprecedented step of being the first ruling monarch of Norway to veto a law in over a hundred years. As Elsa walked through the spiral, she felt her guards' presence behind her and was thankful. There were those who begrudged her for this, their displeasure for years of war with no progress in sight overriding what appreciation they might have had for her service.

And now they had sent the bill back, unaltered, which meant that she could pass it or veto it again. Except that even if she was to veto it again, the fact that they had submitted the same bill twice meant that they would probably do so a third time, and by then it would override her veto and directly become law.

Elsa didn't know what to do. Was this how her great-great-grandfather felt, when the demands came to appoint Vidkun Quisling Prime Minister? Surely the comparison was unfair, for the elected officials only had their people's best interests in mind, as opposed to ambitions of world conquest? Granted it could be worse; originally there had been calls to withdraw from the PPDC entirely. Hans's words from that meeting returned to her again.

"Far be it for me to presume to advise you on what to do, Your Majesty, but you are a queen, and, well, Hadrian did far more for the Empire with a signed order from his throne than he ever could with _gladius _and _scutum _at the front maniple."

She had to admit, they made some amount of sense, but there was still something off about the whole thing that made her reluctant to completely follow through.

_Hadrian_.

The mention of ancient rulers drew Elsa's mind back to that night.

* * *

"Majesty, Highness, Lordship, Grace - see, this is why we overthrew the Emperor," interjected Li Yunlong, formerly a _Shangxiao_ of the People's Liberation Army, now the right half of Shaolin Rogue. "It's much simpler when everyone is simply addressed as comrade-this or comrade-that."

"Really, Li?" said Zhao Gang, the commissar assigned to Li's old unit before the same transfer that affected Li brought him to Kodiak Island as well. "You're sitting next to foreign royals and talking about overthrow? That's extra-unlucky. Penalty drink."

"Implying that a drink to me is actually a penalty of some kind," Li replied. "Hey, wait a second - Comrade-Commissar, are you sympathizing with the feudal institutions that repress the peace-loving workers and peasants of the world? I think _you're_ the one who needs a penalty drink."

"Hey, speaking of drinks - so, not being racist or anything," Yancy cut in, a slight slur coming into his voice, "but you know that movie, Shanghai Noon, with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson?"

"Is that the one where they're cowboys?" Anna interjected, her ears perking up, and Raleigh nodded. Elsa raised an eyebrow, wondering where they were going with this.

"_Long Juan Feng,"_ Zhao Gang said to Li Yunlong, who nodded in understanding. "Yes, what of it?"

"There's this drinking game they play in that, and I just always wanted to know - is that a real thing?"

"Yes, of course," Zhao Gang said, nodding. "I played it all the time back at military academy, and at Communist Party study school. It's popular among the Hakka - they're a cultural-linguistic group that live mostly in Fujian, Canton, and Taiwan. Deng Xiaoping is one. So is Chow Yun-fat." At that moment, he noticed a twinkle in the American's eye. "Oh no, you do not want to play that with me," he added. "Like I said, that game was my entire school life...and now you know why communism failed."

"Hey, bro? I think he's calling you out," Raleigh said, grinning.

"Challenge accepted," Yancy said. "Because 'murica." He then turned to the other future pilots. "Any of you want in on this?"

"Count us out," said Zeke Amarok, Chrome Brutus's other half and Ilisapie's cousin. "Bad things happen when palefaces give First Nation men fire-water."

"Whoa, dude." Raleigh's face was a rictus of bemusement. "Did you seriously just go there?"

"I can just see it now - it'll be graduation day, and instead of a certification they're just going to hand me a bunch of beads, and then I'm going to walk out to the Jaeger Bay and find my beautiful Chrome Brutus with the Stars and Stripes painted over its chest," Zeke replied solemnly, and there was a brief cloud of awkward tension in the room before the Inuit man burst into a round of guffaws. "I'm just kidding, guys. Besides, someone has to stay sober enough to call a cab for you."

"And to hold their hair," Ilisapie added, glancing at Elsa and Anna. "Because this is, what, the fifth bar we've been to already?"

"Fourth, actually," Raleigh said. "Because there's only four bars on Kodiak Island."

"Really?" Elsa raised an eyebrow. She hadn't been out much since entering the Academy's gates, preferring to spend her off-time in the pine forests and icy bays and snowy hills that reminded her so much of home. "Only four?"

"Hey, not all of us were raised in a castle in the big city, alright?" Raleigh added. "How's this, Your Majesty - as soon as we all graduate, we take a roadtrip to Anchorage, and me and my brother, we'll show you around. Then you'll see, not all of Alaska is as out in the boonies as this place. No offense," he added, waving to the barkeep. "Another Alaskan Amber, please."

"Yeah, you actually need both hands to count the bars there," Yancy added. "Might still want to bring some bear spray, though. They like the taste of tourist." He looked around again, to the Chinese, the Norwegians, and the Canadians. "Alright, so are we getting this started or what?"

"Yep, there's definitely going to be hair-holding," Ilisapie muttered. "Hey, Yancy, word to the wise - I've seen how Chinese people drink. Don't let that glow fool you, it's just to lull you into a false sense of security right before they get you passed out."

"Are you sure you're just not being racist now?" Raleigh said.

"You know I'm part Chinese, right?" Ilisapie replied.

"She's right, you know," Li Yunlong said. "Here, your alcohol only goes up to forty percent. In China, we drink _baijiu_, which at minimum is over fifty. We would have brought some for you, but we went to the duty-free store, and apparently, liquids that are over forty-percent alcohol count as 'flammable substances' and aren't allowed to be brought aboard the airplane."

"Yeah, the TSA kind of sucks like that," Yancy said. "Still, we wouldn't have minded a little taste of Asia, even if it's a bit watered down."

"Nonsense. Nothing but the authentic stuff for our American friends," Zhao added. "And Canadian, and Norwegian, and so on…" He turned back to Yancy. "One last chance to back out. Not kidding when I say that Communist Party study school is not unlike your Spring Break internet videos, except less bikini girls going wild and more old men in suits lecturing on the evolution of Marxist-Leninist ideology into Mao Zedong Thought, and its role in the foundation of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, viewed through the lense of the Important Thought of the Three Represents in contrast to the Scientific Outlook on Development to provide a critique on the successes and future milestones of the march towards the Harmonious Socialist Society."

"Yeah, well I can see Russia from my house," Yancy said, "so if you're done saying words that have meaning by themselves and absolutely none when you string them together, bring it."

"And in Norway, we drink brandy for medicine," Anna cut in. "_Alt for Norge!_"

"Right, so Yancy, Anna, and of course Li and myself," Zhao said, calling for a bottle of house whiskey. "Anyone else?"

"I'm out, too," Raleigh said. "Normally I'd join you, but I think my brother's going to want a nice cell-phone vid of himself in his moment of glory. It'll be worth a lot of cash someday, when they've erected museums and monuments to us, all the secret, never-before-seen footage of the secret lives of Jaeger aces."

"Normally I'm slug you, but right now I'm too drunk to care," Yancy replied, staring intently at his glass. "Elsa - sorry, Your Majesty?"

"Oh, I don't really drink-"

"Aww, come on, sis," Anna begged, and Elsa tried to remember just how many Cosmopolitans she'd had. Only three, if memory served, but then there was that Tequila Sunrise, and that Mai Tai, and that two-for-one Fosters chug with the Aussies, and that double shot of Absolut, and…Anna's voice took on a more singsong quality to it now, as she continued to try to rope Elsa in. "_Elsa, won't you please come join us...just for a round or two..."_

"Ilisapie, you got us?" Elsa asked, and the Inuit woman nodded. "Then all right, I'm in. But only for a few rounds!" She smiled at the men, future comrades all, as well as her sister, with whom she had gone through so much. "Oh, one last thing - by royal decree, I hereby officially grant you all first name privileges for the Royal House of Norway," Elsa added. "Just remember: with great power comes great responsibility. Try not to abuse it."

"Most excellent!" Li Yunlong clapped and rubbed his hands with glee. "Alright, now, repeat after me..._pang xie yi, zhua ba ge, liang tou jian jian zhe me da ge-_"

As much as it had been promised as a night they wouldn't forget, Elsa didn't remember much else that happened after that point, other than the fact that yes, hair was indeed held. But she had her phone, and the memories there would be enough. Anna, trying and failing to meanmug the camera with a fingerstache on one hand and some kind of tropical fruit cocktail in the other. Raleigh, ever the stereotypical American, riding atop a passed out Yancy and waving his hat like a rodeo cowboy. The Chinese, belting out ancient tunes from the Long March, alternating between ridiculously upbeat melodies that sang of beheading kaiju with broadswords or depressingly somber ones that asked of when those displaced could ever return to their bountiful homelands. Zeke facepalming while Ilisapie rocked the duckface. Going back further, a group picture with Matador Fury's pilots upon receiving their certifications, and the Aussies right before one too many boisterous renditions of "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI" got them kicked out of the second bar. They were were good people, all of them, and Elsa looked forward to the day when she and her sister would be standing with them against the kaiju menace.

She did remember, though, the last thing she did before letting go of her grip on lucidity.

"Here's to us," Elsa shouted, raising her glass in a toast to the long and illustrious careers they were all sure to have, and Ilisapie caught the reference. _Good old Canadian public schooling, still teaching the classics_, Elsa thought, _Shakespeare and Austen and Robbie Burns_. At least, she hoped that's where Ilisapie knew the line from; Elsa herself always held some pride in the fact that she knew that toast before Mass Effect 3 made it mainstream. "Who's like us?"

* * *

She knew the answer to that now.

Yancy Becket, Gipsy Danger. Duc and Kaori Jessop, Tacit Ronin. Nena and Audrey Ramirez, Diablo Intercept. Ilisapie Flint and Zeke Amarok, Chrome Brutus. Trevin and Bruce Gage, Romeo Blue. Tamsin Sevier, Vic and Gunnar Tunari, Coyote Tango. Antonio Rogerio and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Solar Prophet. Tanegashima Hajime and Kimura Kenshin, Echo Saber. Gordito Delgado and Sean McDaniel, Matador Fury. Lo Hin Shen and Xichi Po, Horizon Brave. Harry "Dingo" Monmouth, Vulcan Specter. Chor Kar-Wai, Yim Chun-tung, Tangaroa Ngata, Victoria Magsaysay and Nicole de los Reyes, Lucky Seven.

"Damn few," Elsa murmured, procuring a bottle of _akevitt _that she had brought from the royal cellars. She weaved her way back out of the Field of the Fallen, stopping to pour a little at each gravestone. She knew what to do now. Her comrades had given everything they had to stem the tide. Could she do any less?

She was at the end of the line now, though she knew it would not be the end of the line later, for the spiral would only grow bigger over time. It was an empty space, reserved for when a shattered concrete base could be shipped from Vladivostok to finish the monument for Dzhoshua and Yakov Volk of Eden Assassin. Sighing, Elsa poured a little out for the two Russians before taking a sip herself.

She doesn't say out loud the last part of the toast.

* * *

_Here's tae us_

_Wha's like us_

_Damn few_

_And they're a' deid_

* * *

**A/N:** Well, that's it folks, thanks for reading, everyone! At least, for my end anyway. But wait, did Anna wake up? Did Elsa and Anna survive up to the events of Pacific Rim the movie proper? Well, see...originally when I set out to write this I did consider doing it as "Pacific Rim the movie but either with Frozen Heart replacing Gipsy Danger or Frozen Heart as part of the last Jaeger strike group or maybe just Elsa replacing Mako or Raleigh or something", but I knew I wouldn't have the energy to go through with that. So I set it near the tail-end of the Golden Age of Jaeger Combat and left it open-ended, and it really just depends on whether you believe this crossover ought to lean more towards Disney ("true love thaws a frozen heart") or Pacific Rim ("there are no heroes in a world where heroes can't die").

Although in my mind, the True End of this story involves the following lines:

"The world is ending, Your Majesty, so where would you rather die? Here, propped up and paraded in front of your people, filling them with false hope even as their world crumbles around them? OR IN A JAEGER?"


End file.
